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3 d Session J 

- 

SENATE 

J Document 
l No. 873 


CHARLES J. HUGHES, Jr. 

(Late a Senator from Colorado) 

MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 

DELIVERED IN THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF 
REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES 

U.S, SIXTY-FIRST CONGRESS 
THIRD SESSION 


Proceedings in the Senate Proceedings in the House 

February 11, 1911 February 12, 1911 


COMPILED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 
THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PRINTING 


WASHINGTON 

1911 



















TABLE OF CONTENTS 


Page- 

Proceedings in the Senate_ 5 

Prayer by Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, D. D_ 5, 7 

Memorial addresses by— 

Mr. Guggenheim, of Colorado_ 9’ 

Mr. Stone, of Missouri_ 13 

Mr. Clark, of Wyoming_ 19* 

Mr. Warren, of Wyoming_ 22 

Mr. Taylor, of Tennessee_ 2& 

Mr. Smoot, of Utah_ 32, 

Mr. Fletcher, of Florida_ 35 

Proceedings in the House_ 41 

Prayer by Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D_ 41, 43 

Memorial addresses by— 

Mr. Taylor, of Colorado_ 45 

Mr. Mondell, of Wyoming_ 61 

Mr. Rucker, of Colorado_ 64 

Mr. Martin, of Colorado- 67 

Mr. Clayton, of Alabama_ 73 

Mr. Clark, of Missouri_ 89 

Mr. Alexander, of Missouri_ 83 

Mr. Smith, of Iowa_ 92 




[ 3 ] 







































. 



























































































' 































































HON-CHARLES J. HUGHES JR. 

















DEATH OF HON. CHARLES J. HUGHES, Jr. 


Proceedings in the Senate 

Thursday, January 12, 1911. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, D. D., offered 
the following prayer: 

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, who art the con¬ 
fidence of all flesh, we take refuge in Thee who hast been 
our dwelling place in all generations. Before the moun¬ 
tains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed 
the earth and the world, even from everlasting to ever¬ 
lasting, Thou art God. But as for man, Thou hast made 
his days as a handbreadth and ail our goodliness is as 
the flower of the field. And now, O Lord, where is our 
help but in Thee? Thou knowest our frame, seeing it is 
Thou who hast made us and not we ourselves. There¬ 
fore will we not fear. Though Thou dost cause us to 
walk through the valley of the shadow of death we will 
fear no evil. The rod of Thy righteousness and the staff 
of Thy faithfulness, they comfort us. 

Be with us now, our Father, in our sad bereavement. 
Comfort Thou us as Thou alone canst comfort Thy chil¬ 
dren, and consecrate to us the experiences through which 
Thou hast called us to pass. 

And now may God, our Father, who hast loved us and 
hast given us eternal comfort and good hope through 
grace, comfort our hearts and establish them before Him, 
now and for evermore. Amen. 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


Mr. Guggenheim. Mr. President* it becomes my painful 
duty to announce to the Senate the death of my colleague, 
the Hon. Charles J. Hughes, Jr. 

Enfeebled by the arduous duties incident upon the last 
two sessions of Congress, Senator Hughes returned to 
Colorado in the summer confident of regaining his 
strength and health, and later hoped to benefit by a voy¬ 
age made on the Pacific. He returned to his home elated 
in spirit, apparently improved in health, and looked for¬ 
ward with pleasant anticipation to resuming his place in 
the Senate this winter. 

The improvement was transitory only, however, and 
after a manful fight he passed away at his home in Den¬ 
ver yesterday morning. 

At some future time I shall ask that a day be appointed 
when the Senate may pay fitting tribute to his memory. 

Before offering the following resolutions and asking 
for their present consideration, I wish to add that the 
family of the late Senator Hughes were consulted yes¬ 
terday by wire in reference to having a committee from 
the Senate go to Denver to attend the funeral ceremonies. 
They replied that the funeral will take place to-morrow 
afternoon, and the time is so short that they would not 
ask that a committee be sent to Denver. 

The Vice President. The Senator from Colorado offers 
the following resolutions, which will be read. 

The Secretary read the resolutions, and they were 
considered by unanimous consent and unanimously 
agreed to, as follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of the Hon. Charles J. Hughes, Jr., late a Senator from 
the State of Colorado. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these reso¬ 
lutions to the House of Representatives and to the family of the 
deceased. 


[61 




Proceedings in the Senate 


Mr. Guggenheim. Mr. President, as a further mark of 
respect to the memory of the deceased, I move that the 
Senate adjourn. 

The motion was agreed to; and (at 12 o’clock and 5 
minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned until to-morrow, 
Friday, January 13, 1911, at 12 o’clock meridian. 


January 23,1911. 

Mr. Scott. Mr. President, on behalf of myself and the 
Senator from Colorado [Mr. Guggenheim] I desire to give 
notice that on Saturday, February 11, at half past 2 
o’clock in the afternoon, I shall ask the Senate to consider 
resolutions in memory of the late Senator Elkins, of West 
Virginia, and the late Senator Hughes, of Colorado. 


Saturday, February 11, 1911. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, D. D., offered 
the following prayer: 

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, whom alike the 
living and the dead praise, we thank Thee for this day of 
reverent memory and of tender recollection. We thank 
Thee, who art the giver of every good gift and of every 
perfect boon, for the lives and services of those whom our 
lips shall this day name. It is hard to yield up those who 
have labored by our side and have shared our councils. 
As they stand again before us in memory and again live 
in our hearts, teach our tongues fit words to utter our 
sense of loss and to voice our unchanged devotion. Sanc¬ 
tify to us, we implore Thee, the services of this day, and 
make us worthy of the fellowship of those who in newness 
of life dwell with Thee in Thy heavenly kingdom. Join 
our hearts with theirs, and unite our spirits with the faith- 


[ 7 ] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


ful and true, there and here, in one light of faith, one 
beauty of holiness, one repose on Thee. 

And unto Thee, our Father, who has loved us and hast 
given us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, 
will we ascribe praise now and for evermore. Amen. 

Mr. Guggenheim. Mr. President, pursuant to the notice 
I gave the Senate a few days ago, I submit the following 
resolutions and ask for their adoption. 

The Presiding Officer (Mr. Curtis in the chair). The 
Secretary will read the resolutions submitted by the Sen¬ 
ator from Colorado. 

The resolutions were read, considered by unanimous 
consent, and unanimously agreed to, as follows: 

Resolved, That the Senate has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of the Hon. Charles J. Hughes, Jr., late a Senator from 
the State of Colorado. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect to the memory of the 
deceased Senator the business of the Senate be now suspended 
to enable his associates to pay proper tribute to his high character 
and distinguished public services. 

Resolved, That the Secretary communicate a copy of these reso¬ 
lutions to the House of Representatives and transmit a copy 
thereof to the family of the deceased Senator. 


[ 8 ] 




MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 


Address of Mr. Guggenheim, of Colorado 

Mr. President: It is with profound sorrow that I ap¬ 
pear on this occasion, not alone on account of the indi¬ 
vidual loss to Colorado, sustained in the death of my late 
colleague, but also that the painful bereavements of this 
body during the sessions of the present Congress have 
been augmented by his departure. 

Charles James Hughes, Jr., was born in Kingston, 
Caldwell County, Mo., February 16, 1853, and died in 
Denver, Colo., January 11, 1911. Rirth and death define 
the extremes of life, but it is the filling in of the years 
that counts—that really interpret life and its profound 
meaning. 

In the early career of Senator Hughes there were busy 
years of earnest preparation for life and its activities. 
In the home and school and in every situation during 
those formative years he brought to bear the faithful 
study and intense application which were the marked 
characteristics of his later life. 

If heredity counted for anything, there was transmitted 
to him from a lawyer father and legal family affiliations 
a distinct call toward the profession of the law, and in 
choosing it he made no mistake. 

Removing to Denver in 1879, he began a law practice 
which was immediately lucrative, and he was recognized 
as a safe, reliable counselor from the start. It was a 
time, too, when mining and irrigation laws then in vogue, 
and many of them formulated as exigencies required, 
were being tested to the uttermost. This situation ap¬ 
pealed to the young attorney, who was never so much 


[9] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


at home, never so profoundly absorbed in the elemental 
traits of his intellect, as when called to interpret the 
most difficult legal problems presented to him; and as he 
progressed in his practice he manifested his powers of 
persistence, his depth of learning, and his eloquent ability 
at the bar. 

Never once was his honor and legal judgment doubted 
by his clients. 

He was a great lawyer, by intuitive processes as well 
as by deep and thorough study, and never so happy as 
when untangling intricate phases of the law in the courts 
and before classes of university students, in whom he 
always manifested great interest. He was recognized 
as a prodigious worker, and so well were his labors 
classified that the experts and clerks in his office found 
themselves in an atmosphere of industry, of research, and 
study that called forth the same qualities of application 
and effort that were so marked in him. Midnight and 
daylight found him at work, shirking no duty, and never 
requiring of others the labor he imposed upon himself. 

The conservation interests of Colorado and the great 
West were studied by him from the foundation up, no 
feature for or against being hastily assumed, and when 
made clear and just to himself, then nothing could inter¬ 
fere with his emphatic declarations concerning them. 

In politics he was an old-time Democrat, believing in 
his party and in the ability of the party to build itself into* 
power and permanency from within and on the basis of 
distinguished precedence, rather than through the agency 
of numerous and complicated systems of expediency. 

The tariff was studied by him in its closest details. For 
many years he had familiarized himself with great politi¬ 
cal problems, national and international, with the same 
deep study which he gave to every local problem affect¬ 
ing his own State of Colorado. 


[10] 




Address of Mr. Guggenheim, of Colorado 


There had been a dream in his consciousness, an ideal 
toward which he walked, with fine appreciation of its 
large demands and thorough readiness for its realiza¬ 
tion—a place among “ the seats of the mighty.” He came 
to it steadily, studiously, and unwaveringly. And when 
he leaped into sudden fame in the United States Senate it 
was through the mastery of his splendid intellect and 
training. 

But if he came as a surprise to this body, it was not a 
surprise to his own people. Colorado had taken measure 
of his mental stature and knew thoroughly his splendid 
equipment for the place. Proud of the quick recognition 
accorded him, there was still a larger fulfillment awaiting 
him. 

It is unspeakably strange how a beautiful dream can 
be realized and how that dream can be so mysteriously 
shattered—the magnificent preparation to live becoming 
the magnificent preparation to die. 

To the United States Senate this intricate, unsolvable 
problem has been brought with startling significance. 
Colorado mourns the Nation’s losses and mourns her own 
loss, and yet no one of us has seen the hand that opened 
the door for one and another of our honored membership 
when the silent call came for them to go. The State of 
Colorado mourns the death of her exalted citizen. She 
watched with profit, as well as pleasure, the daily grow¬ 
ing of a gifted mind, from promise to fruition; from the 
beginning of a career, marked by ceaseless effort, devo¬ 
tion to study, and loyalty to principle, to the time when 
the rich experience of such a life has been garnered with 
distinguished results. The highest place is none too high 
for such a life. This was predicated of Charles J. Hughes, 
Jr., for many years. He idolized his profession. It yielded 
its secrets to him, keeping nothing back. He venerated 
the principles of right and justice as embodied in the law 


[11] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


and in the Constitution of the United States. Ceaseless 
and difficult mental work requires almost herculean phys¬ 
ical strength. Those who knew him best in Colorado 
welcomed for him a change of scene and application, 
hoping he would, as a duty he owed to himself and family, 
take his new obligations less laboriously and give a per¬ 
sonal and justifiable interest to the conservation of his 
own physical resources, looking to a complete restoration 
of his health, that he might render larger services to his 
State and Nation in the future. But the habits of a life¬ 
time, with a restless brain and burning desire to accom¬ 
plish what he had in view, in his enlarged horizon, were 
not to be thrust aside. 

Senator Hughes worked as if he wrought for eternity 
and could not understand human and time limits as 
applied to his own physical constitution and welfare. 
Work was his life, and the fierce problems that were slay¬ 
ing his colleagues all about him seemed to be but voices 
demanding increased energy from him, even when he 
knew, and those nearest him knew, that he was encroach¬ 
ing upon the reserve forces of his being. 

Colorado has lost a distinguished citizen. He died 
young, if we count it by years; if by achievement, his was 
a long life, compact with purpose, effort, and realization. 

The Nation has lost a leader, a safe guide, a statesman. 

The lines of the poet Tennyson, it seems to me, fittingly 
exemplify his life: 

For can I doubt, who knew thee keen 
In intellect, with force and skill 
To strive, to fashion, to fulfill— 

I doubt not what thou wouldst have been: 

A life in civic action warm, 

A soul on highest mission sent, 

A potent voice of Parliament, 

A pillar steadfast in the storm. 


[121 




Address of Mr. Stone, of Missouri 

Mr. President: I have been asked to speak a word of 
tribute to the memory of Charles James Hughes, Jr. My 
acquaintance with him dates as far back, perhaps, as 20 
years; but, while I came to know him well, I never knew 
him intimately. Our meetings were too seldom and our 
association too casual to admit of intimacy. That he was 
born and reared in Missouri; that he was educated in that 
State and there began his career, were the circumstances 
that first attracted him to me. Later, and as I came to 
know him better, I was attracted by his great personal 
qualities. While yet a young man, and at the very be¬ 
ginning of his professional activities, he moved to Colo¬ 
rado and located at Denver, the capital and metropolis 
of the Centennial State. There for more than 30 years 
he lived and wrought. His environment gave tone and 
color to his thought, and all the wondrous things about 
him spurred his ambition and added zest to his work. 
There was to him a charm and inspiration in the great, 
towering mountains that stood as a majestic background 
to his home. Who has ever been in Denver and watched 
the red sun fall behind the high-lifted hills which rise 
just beyond the city’s gilded spires who did not feel 
profoundly impressed by the wonderful beauty and semi¬ 
solemnity of the scene? To any man of refined intellect¬ 
uality and with sentiment enough to respond to nature’s 
wooing there is always to be found in rugged mountain 
scenery an influence both impressive and ennobling. 
Winged spirits dwell on mountain heights, and from the 
crest of lofty peaks inspiring voices call. These spirits 
stir high-minded men with the fire and passion of great 


[13] 


Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


ambitions and these voices call from on high to human 
souls to climb. With these spirits young Hughes held 
companionship and to these voices h& gave instant and 
joyous answer. He became a climber and also perforce 
became the architect of his own fortune. A brave heart 
and a strong, normal mentality constituted his first cap¬ 
ital. With these he constructed his life work, and we 
know that he builded wisely and well. Harkening to the 
call that came down to him from above, he was always 
climbing, climbing higher, ever higher. With character 
foundations deep-laid and solid and with moral fiber 
close-knit and strong, it is no wonder he knew that each 
year’s finished work would stand the white heat of any 
test; and it was only natural that this knowledge afforded 
him an ever-present encouragement to advance without 
fear, always striving for greater and better things. And 
what of his work—what did he accomplish? Mr. Presi¬ 
dent, when we behold a great life snuffed out by the 
tragedy of death, and when, looking backward, we seek 
to measure the worth of the stricken man, what takes 
first place in the sum of our estimate? There are three 
things—his individual character, his home life, and his 
conduct as a citizen—a trinity that might well be merged 
into one. These three things come first, and as to these 
the example set by Senator Hughes is so conspicuous as 
to deserve universal admiration. I would not say that 
his daily life—his incoming and outgoing—was in all re¬ 
spects above criticism, for only one wholly blameless 
ever trod the earth; but I will say that the private life of 
Senator Hughes was on lines so elevated and altogether 
so clean, sincere, and true as to aff ord little ground even 
to the most querulous for reproach. His body, impaired 
by affliction, was weak, but his character was rugged and 
strong. He could no more be moved from what he be¬ 
lieved was right or moved to do what he believed was 




Address of Mr. Stone, of Missouri 


wrong than you or I could move the eternal mountains 
he loved so well. Mr. President, it has been well said 
that home life furnishes the finest test of those high quali¬ 
ties which make up a thorough gentleman. Senator 
Hughes’s home life, characterized by refinement and 
gentle courtesy, was ideal. Above his hearthstone love 
was regnant and with soft hand wielded there his royal 
scepter, bringing all hearts under the sweet influences of 
his sway. This home life of Senator Hughes illustrated 
in a beautiful way the simple life of all cultured Ameri¬ 
can gentlemen. 

Mr. President, it was almost impossible that a man so 
constituted and trained as this dead Senator could have 
been other than a model citizen. He was a model citizen. 
In every work intended to promote the welfare of his city 
or State he fully performed his part, never shrinking 
from the call of duty. If a man be brave, faithful, and 
honest; if he fills his home with sunshine and love; if he 
is kind to the poor, gentle to the afflicted, a good neigh¬ 
bor, and a loyal friend; if he is a leader in public enter¬ 
prise and an exemplar of civic duty—if, in short, he 
embodies all these virtues in some large measure, then 
there is indeed “ a combination and form where every 
god doth seem to set his seal to give the world assurance 
of a man.” Senator Hughes was of this type. It should 
be eulogy enough when that can be truthfully spoken of 
any man. But Hughes also wrought in other ways, and 
did things the world calls great. He rose to high profes¬ 
sional eminence. In the judicial forum—a forum where¬ 
in the best-trained gladiators clash—he ranked among 
the foremost. When I say that he was reckoned among 
the great lawyers of America I will not offend by adding 
that he was at the very head of the Colorado bar, a bar 
recognized as one of the ablest in the Union. Mr. Presi¬ 
dent, I can not conceive of a more enviable distinction 


[15] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


than that of being deservedly recognized as among the 
great lawyers of the country. How easy it would be for 
me to name a select company of immortals whose fame is 
chiefly associated with the law and courts of justice; and, 
laying down the burden of an arduous life, what greater 
honor could come to any man than to occupy a niche in 
the temple consecrated to that illustrious company? 

While Senator Hughes possessed great abilities re¬ 
markably well adapted to public work, he had but little 
experience in that service. This was of his own choosing, 
for more than once he was offered positions of the high¬ 
est distinction in his State. He seemed wedded to the 
law and unwilling to worship at any shrine save the one 
sacred to that blind goddess in whose hand is held the 
even scales of justice. The office of Senator, to which 
he was elected two years ago, and which he filled at the 
date of his death, was the only public station of any 
moment he ever occupied. His service here, although 
lamentably brief, was so exceptionally distinguished as 
to give great promise of a brilliant future. No man ever 
rose with greater rapidity or on more substantial merit to 
a commanding place in this great assembly. He was not 
here beyond a single session until his forcefulness was 
recognized and his power felt. Still climbing, as he 
climbed when life was young and limb was lithe, he was 
here fast rising to a place of such well-deserved leader¬ 
ship that none could dispute it. The door of opportunity 
was opening to him for the performance of great services 
of signal value to his country. Oh, how pitiful that he 
should fall just as the sun began to shine with smiling 
face upon a great future for him! Mr. President, it is 
said that every cloud hath a silver lining. I believe there 
was never a regret so profound that there was not some¬ 
where in the gloom a comforting spirit—no sorrow ever 
so acute and hopeless that some solacing thought did not 


[161 




Address of Mr. Stone, of Missouri 


creep in to soothe the anguish of the heart. Missouri 
mourns for Hughes, but finds a comforting pride in the 
thought that she gave this great son of hers to Colorado. 
Colorado mourns for Hughes, but finds an uplifting 
solace in the thought that all his great qualities as citizen, 
lawyer, and statesman were matured within her borders 
and are a part of her heritage. 

Here, Mr. President, I would close this imperfect 
tribute, except that in the circumstances of this hour I 
can not forbear digressing far enough to speak a kindly 
word or two of my old friend Stephen B. Elkins. 
Although not born in Missouri, that State was his home 
from early childhood to mature manhood. There was 
one striking bond of sympathy and affection between 
Senators Elkins and Hughes and myself. All of us were 
educated at the University of Missouri, and every univer¬ 
sity man knows how the heart clings to the old school 
and to everything and everybody connected with it. The 
university authorities had voted to confer the LL. D. 
degree upon Senator Elkins, and it was expected that 
the ceremony would occur last June. But, as you know, 
his legislative duties at that time were so imperative and 
urgent that it was wholly impracticable for him to absent 
himself from Washington. I know this was a great dis¬ 
appointment to him, and he often spoke to me of the 
next university commencement, which he confidently 
expected to attend, and to which he looked forward 
with anticipations of a most pleasurable occasion. I had 
promised to be present and introduce him when the time 
came to confer his degree. I knew Senator Elkins well, 
and held him in most affectionate esteem. Besides 
being a man of exceptional ability, energy, and force, 
he was one of the most lovable men I ever knew. 
When I parted from him at the close of Congress last 
summer, I little dreamed it was the last time I would 


93226°—11-2 


[17] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


see the light of his kindly eye and feel the pressure of 
his hand. It is a sad disappointment to me that we 
shall not meet next summer, as we had planned, amid 
the familiar and classic environments of our old 
university. 

Mr. President, Missouri has a right to participate in 
the obsequies of to-day, and to share with West Vir¬ 
ginia and Colorado in paying tribute to the dead states¬ 
men in whose memory these solemn ceremonies are held. 
I speak here in a dual capacity, for myself and for my 
State. In speaking for myself I speak as a friend who 
has suffered a grievous personal loss; in speaking for 
the State I speak as for a mother who, while weeping 
at the bier of her dead sons, feels her heart glow with 
honest pride that she gave such splendid types of Ameri¬ 
can manhood to her sister States and to the world. 


[18] 




Address of Mr. Clark, of Wyoming 

Mr. President: For months past the grim and unre¬ 
lenting archer has stood as sentinel in almost constant 
attendance upon the doors of this Chamber. His shafts 
have been thrown with swift, with frequent, and with 
deadly aim. He has spared neither locality, youth, age, 
nor activity in service—the North and the South, the East 
and the West have alike draped their desks in this Senate, 
and every section has been called upon to mourn its 
worthy sons. To-day Colorado is joined by her sister 
States in paying just tribute to the life and character 
and public services of one who had become bone of her 
bone and flesh of her flesh; one whose manhood had 
entered into her history and success, and whom she had 
honored with the highest political station that was hers 
to give. 

Charles J. Hughes, Jr., was, to all intents and purposes, 
a product of the mountain west; clean of purpose, direct 
of thought and of action, he was in the highest degree 
typical of that race of men who have carved sovereign 
States out of inhospitable wastes, and have stamped the 
hall mark of the highest American manhood upon our 
newer Commonwealths. Born in the Middle West, ac¬ 
quiring his education and profession under the conditions 
of moderate circumstances and the self-denials and self- 
helps characteristic of our best American life; with a 
mental equipment and a strength of character that was to 
carry him far ere “ finis ” should be inscribed upon his 
work, he early turned his eyes and thoughts to our ever¬ 
lasting hills and cast his hopes and his fortunes into the 


[19] 


Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


lap and life of the “ Centennial State.” A lawyer by na¬ 
ture and education, he there entered at once upon the 
active practice of his profession. His field of labor 
opened up for him new and unsettled branches of the 
law, where precedents were few and of little avail. Only 
in comparatively recent years has mining law become in 
any sense settled, and irrigation law is of still later date; 
in both of these important fields Senator Hughes was a 
pioneer, and, at the last, a specialist. He delighted in 
wrestling with the new and untried problems, and to him, 
as much as to any other one man, is due the credit of 
working over the crude material at hand into a line of 
decisions along both branches that welds them into well- 
settled and logical law. Not content with the ordinary 
work and results incident to the particular cases at hand, 
his lectures in the eastern law schools and universities 
marked him as authority of the highest class in these two 
most important specialties of the law; and, all in all, the 
bar of the entire West gladly gave him place among the 
really first-class lawyers of his time. 

To those who knew him well his election as Senator 
brought the greatest satisfaction. He brought to the 
duties of that high office a personal character above 
reproach, a mind alert, keen, and courageous, and a 
modest self-confidence that itself insured a useful and 
successful career in this body. His services as a Senator 
were all too brief, but in the little time that he was here 
his energy, his faithfulness to his constituency, and the 
vigorous ease with which his trained mind grasped great 
public questions gave promise of a great and worthy 
service and emphasized the great loss the country sus¬ 
tains by his untimely end; and while his short term here 
precludes the possibility of the greatest legislative fame, 
those who knew him best, who enjoyed his close personal 
friendship, and correctly estimated his attainments know 


[ 20 ] 




Address of Mr. Clark, of Wyoming 


that had his life been spared he would have been of ines¬ 
timable service to his country in these and the coming 
days of change and vicissitude in governmental problems, 
and would have written his name far up in the roll of 
those who in this great body have earned and received, 
and shall earn and receive, high honor and the thanks 
of a just and grateful people. 

Senator Hughes was a man who always had, in polit¬ 
ical as well as in other affairs, the courage of his con¬ 
victions. A party man, he placed patriotism above party. 
A Democrat of the old school, he was ever jealous of the 
rights of his State and suspicious of all attempted Fed¬ 
eral encroachment. He believed fully in the restrictions 
of the Constitution and in the theory that this is a govern¬ 
ment of law and not a government of men, and these 
views, honestly held and freely expressed at critical times 
and on all necessary occasions, endeared him in the high¬ 
est degree to the people whose commission he bore. Col¬ 
orado gave him much of honor, but more of confidence 
and love. He was one of those who made her what she 
is and who gave in the making to the fullest extent his 
talent, his energy, and his loyal service, and in the history 
of that Commonwealth among all the great names that 
shall shine along its pages by no means the least shall be 
that of Charles J. Hughes, Jr. 


[21] 




Address of Mr. Warren, of Wyoming 

Mr. President: 

Leaves have their time to fall, 

And flowers to wither with the north wind’s breath; 

But thou! thou has’t all seasons for thine own, 0 death! 

How sadly true the history of this body for the Sixty- 
first Congress has shown this line of the poet. Review¬ 
ing this history we may well pause in our busy delibera¬ 
tions and give thought to the mutability of human life 
and human institutions. Many times death has come 
into our ranks during the period so far passed of the 
Sixty-first Congress and taken acquaintance or friend 
from us. 

When we read the death roll of the session, what 
distinguished and loved forms are called to our thought 
and remembrance—Senators with whom we worked day 
after day, month after month, or year after year, in 
committee or on the floor of the Senate, some in friendly 
cooperation and some in friendly rivalry. 

This is the long list of our distinguished colleagues 
who have been taken from us during this Congress: 

Martin N. Johnson, October 21, 1909. 

Anselm J. McLauren, December 22, 1909. 

Samuel D. McEnery, June 28, 1910. 

John W. Daniel, June 29, 1910. 

Jonathan P. Dolliver, October 15, 1910. 

Alexander S. Clay, November 13, 1910. 

Stephen B. Elkins, January 4, 1911. 

Charles J. Hughes, Jr., January 11, 1911. 

Eight in all within less than fifteen months. 


[ 22 ] 


Address of Mr. Warren, of Wyoming 


To the memory of the last named it is my sad duty to 
join with other Senators in placing testimonials in our 
records to his recognized brilliant accomplishments and 
abilities. 

The life story of Charles James Hughes, Jr., is one 
that tells of toil—hard, constant, unremitting toil—with 
one predominating object in view, thorough mastery of 
the subject or task before him. When death claimed 
him he was young in years, but old in results. In the 
58 years of his life he had accomplished much. 

Briefly stated, this was his life: He was born in Kings¬ 
ton, Caldwell County, Mo., on February 16, 1853, the son 
of Charles James and Cerena C. Pollard Hughes. His 
ancestors were Kentucky pioneers who came from 
Virginia. 

Senator Hughes was a graduate of Richmond (Mo.) 
College in the class of 1871, and was a student of the Uni¬ 
versity of Missouri in 1872-73. He received a degree of 
doctor of laws from both the University of Missouri and 
the University of Denver. After his graduation he sup¬ 
plemented his collegiate education by studies in higher 
mathematics, languages, political economy, and sciences 
useful in his legal practice, including engineering, chem¬ 
istry, geology, ore deposition, irrigation, and hydraulic 
engineering. He accumulated one of the most complete 
private libraries in the country bearing upon these and 
kindred subjects. 

After being graduated from college he spent five years 
in teaching in the public schools and as a college pro¬ 
fessor. In September, 1874, he was married to Lucy S. 
Menefee, and in August, 1877, he began the practice of 
law, locating in Denver in 1879. As a lawyer he was 
successful from the beginning, his thorough study and 
preparation having given him a perfect equipment for 
practicing his profession. 


[ 23 ] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


He built up an extensive practice, not limited to any 
field or class of clients, and embracing all save criminal 
law, which he avoided whenever possible. 

The ability of Charles J. Hughes as a lawyer was 
known throughout the business world of the West and 
East, for he was engaged in conducting much of the 
important litigation relating to mining, irrigation, and 
other questions arising out of the formative and con¬ 
structive period in the history of a new country and new 
States. Few great mining or irrigation suits in the 
Middle West have been tried in which he was not a par¬ 
ticipant as leading counsel. He was successful in the 
decision of many of these suits in their final settlement 
before the Supreme Court of the United States, and he 
admittedly stood with those occupying the front rank in 
his profession. 

Before his election to the United States Senate on 
January 20, 1909, Senator Hughes held no political office 
save that of membership on the State board of capitol 
managers, which had charge of building the Colorado 
State Capitol. Twice the nomination for governor of 
Colorado had been tendered him by the Democratic 
Party, but each time had been declined. He was on his 
party’s ticket as a presidential elector for Colorado in 
1888 when he with his party was defeated; he was elected 
a Democratic presidential elector from his State in 
1900, and defeated for the same position in 1904. He 
was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions 
of 1904 and 1908. 

His election to the United States Senate in 1909 followed 
an indorsement of him by the State Democratic Conven¬ 
tion in September, 1908. 

Senator Hughes throughout his career as a lawyer had 
high political ideals. He twice declined the nomination 
for the governorship of his State, for his gaze was fixed 


F24] 




Address of Mr. Warren, of Wyoming 


on what he thought a higher station in the political world. 
That this was so was shown in his speech of acceptance 
upon his election to the Senate, when he said: 

When there comes to us, as there comes seldom and to so few, 
the realization of the loftiest dreams of our imagination, hope, 
and ambition, we find that the feeble words of our language, the 
faltering utterances of our tongues, can neither respond in thanks 
nor in promises. 

Thus we see that in the struggle for preeminence and 
success in his profession, Senator Hughes was hoping 
and dreaming that the future held in store for him a 
place in this body. And in the busy moments of his life 
work his recreation was study and research in philoso¬ 
phy, political economy, and history, in order that when 
his time came, as he surely believed it would, he would 
be prepared to take his place among the old and trained 
Members of the Senate and be able to take creditable 
part in the proceedings without having to serve the 
apprenticeship which many believe incumbent upon 
them. 

How wisely he builded we who heard him speak 
during his too brief service with us can testify. How 
efficient and practical he was as a working member 
of the committees to which he was assigned, those who 
were associated with him on these committees well 
know. He was both a power in debate and a useful 
committee worker, a combination, as we know, some¬ 
what unusual. 

But how brief the fruition of his hopes; how futile the 
years of preparation to do well his part in the work for 
which he dreamed. The activity of his mind was too 
great a tax upon the resisting powers of a not too strong 
physical organization, and the years of mental toil and 
strain told, with fatal effect, upon his bodily strength. 


[ 25 ] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


Perhaps he had a premonition of this, for when he was 
elected to the Senate he said : 

I hope to slacken the pace of work and effort I have held for 
years, and believe that in doing so I shall be able to render better 
service to the State and improve the quality of any professional 
labors I may perform. 

After he came to the Senate he sought to slacken the 
pace as he had promised, but the old habit of incessant 
work clung to him, and it was only when he was stricken 
in August last that he gave up his strong hold upon the 
activities of his duties. Too late he sought by resting 
from his labors to regain the strength wrested from him 
by the hard, unremitting toil of years. He went across 
the seas to Hawaii in the hope that absolute rest and free¬ 
dom from the cares of office would bring relief, but 
without avail, and he returned to his home in Denver, 
where, surrounded by the members of his family, he 
passed to the Great Beyond on the morning of Wednes¬ 
day, January 11 last. 

Senator Hughes was imbued with sterling patriotism. 
His creed was expressed in his acceptance of the senator- 
ship in these words: 

There can come no hour in the Nation’s history when I may 
not pledge the support of the party which has honored me and 
my own, however weak, to the strengthening of the hands of 
our Government, by whomsoever administered, in every just 
cause upon which it shall enter, to the defense of every righteous 
policy it may espouse, and to the vindication of its integrity and 
wisdom in the councils of the nations. 

He was a strict party man and a consistent supporter 
of the political party to which he had belonged from his 
boyhood days. And yet he was willing to act independ¬ 
ent of his party upon questions affecting the welfare of 
his adopted State, Colorado. In the long contest over 
tariff legislation he voted for what he believed would 
best promote the interests of Colorado and the Nation in 


[ 26 ] 




Address of Mr. Warren, of Wyoming 


the adjustment of tariff rates, sometimes in opposition 
to the general attitude of his party associates. It was in 
defense of this independence of action that he startled 
the Senate and attracted the attention of the country 
when he declared: 

I know no master * * *. I demand the right to be heard 

unchallenged, uncriticized, and undominated by any influence 
save my own judgment and my own political conscience. 

It was that declaration of independence and the able 
manner in which he carried himself in debate with the 
most skilled opponents in the Senate that evoked the 
general prediction that he was the coming leader of his 
party, a prediction that many believe would have been 
realized had he been spared. 

Senator Hughes was a courteous gentleman, of high 
ideals and rugged, almost stern, devotion to an absolute 
unswerving idea of the right. Beneath an appearance 
of reserve we who knew him well were aware that he was 
charitable and hospitable and kind-hearted—one who 
loved his family, his friends, and humanity. 

In my personal intercourse with him I recall many 
instances of his courtesy and kindness of thought and 
heart and charity for those in want and distress. His 
deeds of charity and kindness were performed quietly 
and without parade or ostentation, and those who were 
the beneficiaries usually were the only ones who knew 
of them. 

I am conscious that mere words are weak and inade¬ 
quate to fittingly place in the records of this body a 
proper estimate of the worth of the late Senator from 
Colorado. But there is comfort in the thought that 
while my words fall short and will be forgotten, his life, 
though brief, was full and complete with the accomplish¬ 
ment of the work which came to his hand. 

Words may fade from memory, but the good deeds 
of a great man live forever. 


[ 27 ] 




Address of Mr. Taylor, of Tennessee 

Mr. President: Less than two years ago a modest and 
unobtrusive man quietly walked into this Chamber and 
was sworn in as a United States Senator from Colorado. 
Peculiar interest was centered upon him because he was 
the successor of Henry M. Teller, one of the purest and 
most illustrious statesmen of our times. 

But all doubt as to his worthiness to wear the mantle 
of that splendid Senator was dispelled when, at the 
very threshold of a career which was so soon to end, 
he distinguished himself, not only as a lawyer and an 
orator, but as a safe counselor in the affairs of the 
Nation. 

For myself, I was drawn to this man from the begin¬ 
ning, for behind his armor of unpretention I saw an 
intellectual gladiator. 

I have left it to others better acquainted with his 
private character and previous public and professional 
accomplishments to recount them, for it had not been 
my privilege to know him intimately before his advent 
in the Senate. 

But those who have heard or read his speeches here 
need not be told that his former life abounded in great 
achievements, for they gave ample proofs of a profound 
think'er and a mind stored with the riches of knowledge. 

Those who heard him in his first effort in this body 
will never forget the brilliant revelation of his power and 
his unmistakable ability to sustain himself in debate with 
even the ablest men of the Bepublic. 

He possessed the three leading elements of a states¬ 
man—a profound knowledge of the law, the power to 


[ 28 ] 


Address of Mr. Taylor, of Tennessee 


square public measures to the principles of justice and 
truth, and the courage to do it. Senator Hughes's 
addresses on the tariff, the public lands, the income tax, 
and the interstate-commerce measures established his 
reputation at once as a leader. But he had not long to 
serve his people; he had not long to give evidence of his 
learning and superb ability in our midst; he was not per¬ 
mitted to reach the summit of his glory. And yet he was 
among us long enough to convince every Senator, not 
only of his high purposes and lofty ideals, but of his 
unselfish loyalty to his friends and to his country. 

He was a fighter; a fighter in the court room, a fighter 
in the arena of politics. His convictions were on the side 
of truth and honor, and he had the courage to battle for 
them to the last ditch. He belonged to that type of men 
who make nations great and who lead in the march of 
human progress. He was imbued with the same spirit 
which inspired our fathers to establish our free institu¬ 
tions, and which sustains and directs the administration 
of the Government for the good of humanity and for its 
final and complete emancipation from oppression and 
wrong throughout the whole world. 

In my mind there is no shadow of doubt that the wis¬ 
dom which devised and builded our form of government 
was inspired from on high, for the men who wrought it, 
as great and pure as they were, could never have con¬ 
ceived it so perfectly and completely of themselves. 

The most conclusive evidence of the wisdom of the 
plan of salvation is its comprehensive adaptability to 
all ages and all conditions everywhere. It never needs 
amendment. It was all-sufficient in the beginning and 
will be to the end. 

And I say with all reverence, that the plan of the great 
Republic, conceived and written down by its founders, 
partakes of this same unfailing sufficiency and adapts 


[ 29 ] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


itself to the ever-changing conditions of business and 
government and to the progress of the race. 

Has not the influence of our institutions spread all over 
the earth? Is it not permeating all nations and lodging 
itself in the universal mind? 

And in consequence of all this, are not old ideals and 
old forms of government fading away? Are not consti¬ 
tutions being written everywhere? 

Our lamented colleague was a firm believer in our 
great dual form of government and in preserving it as it 
is. He was a splendid interpreter of the Constitution and 
defender of the rights of the States to control their own 
domestic affairs unmolested by the Federal Government 
or any other power under the sun. He believed in curb¬ 
ing Federal power and holding it within the lines drawn 
by its founders. He believed in the greatest good to the 
greatest number and in the personal rights of all in the 
pursuit of happiness. 

He was every inch a man, in love with his country and 
his fellow man, and in his death the Senate lost one of 
its ablest Members and the Republic one of its noblest 
citizens. 

Mr. President, this has been a year of calamity for 
this Chamber, and we may well resolve it into a lodge 
of sorrow while we give voice to our lamentations. 

Perhaps at no period in the history of the Senate has 
the angel of death been so busy and aimed so high. 

Many of the best and most useful men of the times 
have fallen—patriots, scholars, statesmen, the noblest 
and most lovable spirits who ever blessed any people in 
any land. 

We can not understand why they have been called 
away from their great work, but let us believe that it is 
a part of the plan of Him who controls the destinies of 
us all and who holds us in the hollow of His hand. 


[301 




Address of Mr. Taylor, of Tennessee 


They played their particular parts in the great scheme 
that God devised to lift humanity up out of oppression 
toward liberty and light, and have been called to rest 
from their labors. 

They were not surface men; they did not strut across 
the stage of public life as daubed and tinseled actors in 
slipper and buskin, to swagger in mock heroics and give 
frenzied utterance to fictitious thought. They were 
builders. They chiseled and carved the materials that 
have gone into the structure of the temple of liberty to 
beautify and adorn it and make it enduring; they fash¬ 
ioned them into the similitude of truth and wisdom, and 
truth and wisdom come from God and are God. 

The Senator whose life and character we now com¬ 
memorate was not the least among those master build¬ 
ers. His life will be an inspiration to the younger gen¬ 
eration who knew him and witnessed his rise in the 
world. 

There is one valued lesson to learn from his success, 
and that is the essential importance of preparation. He 
prepared for the battle before he entered it. He held 
diplomas from two universities and then finished a 
course in the law. 

He twice declined the nomination for governor of his 
State; but his experiences in public affairs seemed to 
peculiarly fit him for the career of a Senator. 

And that his people, who knew him best, were of this 
opinion was demonstrated by the vote he received as a 
Democrat in a Republican State, of 73 out of a total of 
100 in the legislature. 

Sir, I offer this feeble tribute of appreciation to the 
memory of the man who within so brief a time impressed 
us all with his virtues and high attainments and taught 
us to love him in life and to cherish happy recollections 
of him in death. 


[31] 




Address of Mr. Smoot, of Utah 

Mr. President: When Charles J. Hughes, Jr., entered 
the United States Senate at the beginning of the present 
Congress he looked forward to a long period of service, 
and the people of Colorado, regardless of party affilia¬ 
tions, had every reason to expect a most useful and bril¬ 
liant career for him, his State, and his country. He was 
splendidly equipped for the duties required of a Member 
of this body, and few men possessed a more logical or 
well-trained mind. Scarcely had he been in the Senate 
a year until everybody became convinced of that fact. 

Senator Hughes was an indefatigable worker. When 
it became apparent that his health was fast failing him 
he was no less energetic in the performance of his duties, 
but even put forth greater efforts to accomplish more. 
During the present session of Congress I had the honor to 
serve on a subcommittee with Senator Hughes in the 
consideration of important public-land legislation. The 
pressure of other work made it necessary for the sub¬ 
committee to meet at nights, and I do not recall a single 
meeting which Senator Hughes failed to attend and in 
the deliberations and discussions of which he failed to 
participate actively, notwithstanding it was then plainly 
evident that he was in no physical condition for such 
strenuous work. In few men were there combined in 
such a marked degree the ability and energy so charac¬ 
teristic of Colorado’s late Senator. 

Senator Hughes was a scholar in the fullest sense of the 
word. At 18 years of age he graduated from Richmond 


[ 32 ] 


Address of Mr. Smoot, of Utah 


(Mo.) College, and before reaching his majority he 
received the degree of LL. D. from the University of 
Missouri and the University of Denver, indicating his 
early boyhood love for the law. From the day of his 
graduation until his last illness he was devoted to his 
profession. I know I am within the bounds of truth when 
I say that there have been few greater lawyers in the 
United States than Senator Hughes. As a legal authority 
he was no stranger to the people of my own State; in 
fact, he was known throughout all the intermountain 
States as a man of sterling worth, unquestioned honesty, 
and brilliant intellect. His counsel was often sought 
when great questions affecting the interpretation of the 
mining and irrigation laws were involved. 

Not only was he a scholar and a student, but he was also 
gifted with sound judgment in the great commercial 
affairs of life. His name is coupled with many of 
the industries of Colorado which go to make that State 
great. The future historian in recording the wonderful 
achievements of Western State builders will refer to 
Senator Hughes as a potent factor in the development 
of Denver, the metropolis of the State of Colorado. 

It is sad to contemplate the death of a friend, a brother, 
a sister, a father, or a mother; but rather would I look at 
death as a temporary separation, the beginning of a new 
life, a life better, nobler, and greater than the one through 
which we are now passing—an advanced step in God’s 
eternal plan. 

It is glorious to contemplate the joys and beauties of a 
well-spent life. The web of life is drawn into a loom for 
us all, but we weave it ourselves. We throw our own 
shuttles and work our own treadles. The warp is given 
us by our Creator, but the filling is of our own making. 
Everyone is the architect of his own home—his own 
temple of fame. If he builds a temple great, glorious. 


93226 °— 11-—3 


[ 33 ] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


and honorable, the merit and happiness are his; if he 
rears a house polluted, unsightly, and ignoble, to him 
belongs the shame and misery. 

The life of Senator Hughes was not great in years, but 
great in achievements. His work in this mundane sphere 
of action has ended. He will be missed by his colleagues 
in this body and by his countrymen, but the greatest loss 
will be to his fond and noble wife and children, to whom 
he was a devoted husband and a loving father. May they 
have comfort in his honorable and successful life. 


[34] 




Address of Mr. Fletcher, of Florida 

Mr. President: The announcemenl of the death of 
Senator Charles J. Hughes, Jr., by the resolution of 
January 12, 1911, shocked the Members of this body, and 
his demise saddened deeply all those with whom he had 
been associated. 

Born in Kingston, Caldwell County, State of Missouri, 
February 16, 1853, he graduated from Richmond College, 
Missouri, in 1871, and received the degree of LL. D. from 
both the University of Missouri and the University of 
Denver. He married Lucy S. Menefee September 1, 
1874, and began the practice of law in August, 1877, and 
located in Denver in 1879. He taught school for some 
five years prior to that, and I have often thought that the 
best way to permanently fix in mind and memory the 
subjects studied in college is by engaging in teaching for 
a period after graduation. The accurate and firm grasp 
I observed that Senator Hughes possessed on all matters 
which he had considered reenforced that view. 

On the 11th day of January, 1911, he departed this life, 
leaving his widow and four children surviving him. 
His law practice covered a wide range of litigation, and 
in recent years he appeared on one side or the other of 
most of the important causes originating in his section 
of the country. He gave special attention, however, to 
mining and irrigation litigation and delivered courses of 
lectures on that subject at Harvard Law School, and for 
many years was professor of mining law in the University 
of Denver. He was a tireless worker, never saving him- 


[35] 


Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


self, but throwing his whole soul into whatever he under¬ 
took with a concentration rarely equaled and a devotion 
never excelled. He possessed a thoroughly trained mind. 
Quick of perception, accurate in analysis, logical in its 
operations, and penetrating in power, it seemed easy and 
natural for him to see straight to the heart of any ques¬ 
tion and grasp fully its ramifications. Affectionate and 
kind in his disposition and nature, he especially lavished 
upon his family the wealth of his warm heart and 
richest hopes. His reading took a wide range, and his 
power of concentration was such that everything of 
importance became fixed in his mind so it could be 
readily brought forth for use when needed, and consti¬ 
tuted a vast fund of information which appeared always 
at his command. His memory was remarkable for its 
accuracy and clearness and strength. His power of 
expression was extraordinary. 

Forceful, polished, and dignified, he made plain and 
lucid any subject he discussed. His command of lan¬ 
guage was never lacking, and his mental processes were 
those of a thinker and reasoner—honest and sincere al¬ 
ways. He was elected United States Senator from the 
State of Colorado January 20,1909, having been the unani¬ 
mous choice of the State Democratic convention at Pueblo, 
September, 1908. He took the oath and signed the roll as 
a Member of this body March 4, 1909, and his term of 
service would have expired March 3, 1915. 

Speaking of him a few days ago, one of the most expe¬ 
rienced and eminent Senators said truly that he possessed 
to a marked degree three qualities which are peculiarly 
important for service in the Senate of the United States— 
physical, intellectual, and moral courage. During the 
short time he was permitted to serve here he took his 
place in the very front rank of master minds, and his 
usefulness to his State and the country would have coin- 


136] 




Address of Mr. Fletcher, of Florida 


manded recognition such as the great men of the country 
have written in our history. 

I never met Senator Hughes until we both took our 
seats here in March, 1909. It was then my good fortune 
to be seated next to him and to be thrown with him daily. 
1 esteem it a great privilege to have enjoyed his compan¬ 
ionship, which on my part ripened into sincerest friend¬ 
ship. My esteem and admiration and cordial regard for 
him grew as the days passed by. It is with profound 
sorrow that I realize the end of that relation—except only 
in memory—and I mourn his loss as a friend and a col¬ 
league, and, in a broader sense, I deplore the country’s 
loss. 

Of course no words we can utter here can bring comfort 
to those of his household who were so near and dear to 
him; but the consolation which comes from the knowl¬ 
edge that he had faithfully met the responsibilities of hus¬ 
band, father, friend, citizen, and public official and had 
impressed the rare qualities of his head and heart upon 
his countrymen they have. 

He was honored and is remembered because of his high 
character, ability, and industry. After all, any man has 
lived to great purpose who has built up, developed, and 
established such a character, “ the one indestructible ma¬ 
terial in destiny’s fierce crucible.” 

He won distinction at the bar; in the lecture room he 
was preeminent, and he merited the high honors which 
were tendered him by the people of his State. He was a 
close observer, a hard student, and thoroughly familiar 
with governmental problems. He enjoyed the most val¬ 
uable quality which characterizes great men—capacity 
for and power of growth. Gladstone was an example of 
this power or capacity. Throughout a long and useful 
life he continued to develop, expand, and grow. So with 
our friend; every day his alert and comprehensive mind 


[ 37 ] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


added to its store of knowledge or reached out in some 
new direction, thus broadening and extending his horizon. 

In the records of this Senate and elsewhere the results 
of his labor and thought will be preserved. At times 
while here he was not in vigorous health, but he was 
always cheerful and gentle and always attentive to his 
duties. Sometimes I have seen him in action when I was 
reminded of John Randolph, of Roanoke, who on one 
occasion, when an angry mob was endeavoring to prevent 
his speaking, declared: 

My Bible teaches me that the fear of God is the beginning of 
wisdom, but the fear of man is the consummation of folly. 

Again, I have seen him working when he was not able, 
and I thought of what Talleyrand said of Alexander 
Hamilton: 

I have seen one of the wonders of the world; I have seen a 
man laboring all night to support his family, who had made the 
fortune of a nation. 

The self-reliance and the brain grasp characteristic 
of him are shown by his speeches in the Senate during 
the too brief period of his labors here. 

His impulses were generous, his public spirit broad and 
deep. 

His sympathy for humanity was of that nature which 
was not limited to ordinary politeness or etiquette, but 
measured up to a vital relation of life. 

His love for his fellow man was something more than 
a sentiment—it amounted to a principle. 

His religion not a mere spasm, but a habit. 

Reing new Senators, occupying the back row and 
adjoining seats, we spent many pleasant moments look¬ 
ing over the Chamber and confiding to each other our 
impressions of our various colleagues. The veterans have 


[ 38 ] 




Address of Mr. Fletcher, of Florida 


not everything their own way. They can not deny to the 
novices the privilege of quiet, confidential, and good- 
natured comment of a personal nature. We took some 
delight in that pastime and enjoyed the survey of the 
membership between ourselves. Sometimes we would 
liken the Senate to the famous school at Athens, in which 
Socrates was the first teacher. He was succeeded by 
Plato, and we would imagine one of the veterans of the 
Senate to be this autocratic successor of Socrates, clad 
in his purple robes, in charge of the school, at a time 
when Athens thrilled with thought and feeling. Then 
we would speculate who his successor would be. This 
school was conducted under the shade of the trees and 
vines, and the pupils reclined on marble benches. We 
could picture that scene at times when Plato would take 
charge of the senatorial school and gather his pupils 
about him. Out of Macedonia came Aristotle, “ with all 
his belongings tied up in a bearskin,” to become the pupil 
of Plato and subsequently his successor in the conduct 
of that famous school, when Pericles was delivering those 
powerful orations and Phidias was carving out of stone 
figures of exquisite beauty. Who is or is to be the Aris¬ 
totle in this school? Many a pleasant hour we spent in 
wanderings and pleasantries of this kind, and I looked 
forward to the opening of this session with keen delight, 
in expectation that the attachment which had been so 
agreeably begun might become closer and stronger 
throughout our careers here. 

It was not to be. The mysteries of life we no more 
understand than the mysteries of death. It seems about 
the limit of our knowledge and capacity is “ to do what 
we can, to do what we ought, and leave hoping and fear¬ 
ing alone.” We humbly submit to the final decree, and 
observe—“ soft as the memory of buried love ”—he is 
no more. 


[ 39 ] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


He will be remembered as the courteous gentleman, 
the kind neighbor, the warm-hearted friend, the ripe 
scholar, profound thinker, eloquent orator, great lawyer, 
and wise statesman. 

We can only hope, as we believe, he will experience 
beyond the grave— 

The freer step, the fuller breath, 

The wide horizon’s grander view, 

The sense of life that knows no death, 

The life that maketh all things new. 

Mr. Guggenheim. Mr. President, I offer the following 
resolution. 

The Presiding Officer. The Senator from Colorado 
submits a resolution, which will be read. 

The Secretary read the resolution, as follows: 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect to the memory of 
Mr. Elkins and Mr. Hughes, the Senate do now adjourn. 

The resolution was unanimously agreed to, and (at 
5 o’clock and 10 minutes p. m.) the Senate adjourned 
until Monday, February 13, 1911, at 12 o’clock meridian. 


[40] 




Proceedings in the House 

Thursday, January 12, 1911. 

The House met at 12 o’clock m. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D., offered the 
following prayer: 

Eternal God, source of all good, we thank Thee from 
the depths of our hearts for those sterling godlike quali¬ 
ties which Thou hast implanted in the constitution of 
man, which lifts him above the brute creation and makes 
him a child of the living God. Grant, 0 most merciful 
Father, that we may grow and cultivate these virtues in 
the common duties of daily life, so that when great crises 
come we shall be able to acquit ourselves like men and, 
like the stars of the firmament, reflect Thy glory in all 
our acts. 

Reminded once more by the death of one of our states¬ 
men, cut off in the heyday of his youthfulness, of the 
uncertainty of this existence, grant that we may so fulfill 
our duties that when the summons comes we shall be 
ready. Comfort, we beseech Thee, his colleagues and 
friends by the eternal promises, and let the everlasting 
arms be about the bereaved wife and children, and 
comfort them with the thought that though he may not 
come to them they shall surely go to him and dwell in 
eternity with him forever, in Jesus Christ, our Lord. 
Amen. 

Mr. Taylor of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, it is with deep 
personal sorrow and a profound sense of the public loss, 
not only to the Nation, but especially to the West, that 1 


[41] 


Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


arise to perform the sad duty of announcing to the House 
the death of the Hon. Charles James Hughes, Jr., late a 
Senator from the State of Colorado. He died at his home 
in the city of Denver yesterday. Owing to the long dis¬ 
tance and the severe weather, the family have requested 
that the usual congressional committee be not appointed 
to attend the funeral, which will be held to-morrow. 

I shall at some future time ask the House to designate 
a day upon which we can consider and pay a fitting 
tribute to his memory and his distinguished public serv¬ 
ices. And on behalf of the delegation from Colorado, I 
now offer the following resolutions, which I send to the 
desk and ask to have read. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the House has heard with profound sorrow of 
the death of Hon. Charles J. Hughes, Jr., late a Senator of the 
United States from the State of Colorado. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate and transmit a copy thereof to the family of the deceased 
Senator. 

Resolved, That as a further mark of respect the House do now 
adjourn. 

The Speaker. The question is on agreeing to the resolu¬ 
tion. 

The resolution was agreed to. 

Accordingly (at 3 o’clock and 16 minutes p. m.) the 
House adjourned until to-morrow, Friday, January 13, 
1911, at 12 o’clock meridian. 


January 24, 1911. 

By unanimous consent, at the request of Mr. Taylor of 
Colorado, it was— 

Ordered, That on Sunday, February 12, 1911, the delivery of 
eulogies on the life, character, and public services of the Hon. 
Charles James Hughes, Jr., late a Senator of the United States 
from Colorado, shall be in order. 


[42] 




Proceedings in the House 


Sunday, February 12 , 1911. 

The House met at 12 o’clock noon and was called to 
order by Mr. Greene, Speaker pro tempore. 

The Chaplain, Rev. Henry N. Couden, D. D., offered 
the following prayer: 

Our Father in heaven, we bless Thee for all the dis¬ 
closures Thou hast made of Thyself, especially for the 
Gospel, the glad tidings of great joy, which fell from the 
lips of the Master, inspiring the hearts of men with faith 
in the eternal goodness of God and the unbroken con¬ 
tinuity of life. “Let not your heart be troubled; ye 
believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house 
are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told 
you. I go to prepare a place for you.” Blessed words, 
which lifts the veil, points the way, removes the sting of 
death, comforts the sad and bereaved heart. 

We are here to-day in memory of two distinguished 
men, strong in mentality, lofty of purpose, clean in char¬ 
acter, called by their fellow citizens to service in their 
respective States and in the National Congress, who in 
every station of life acquitted themselves with credit and 
honor. They have passed on into one of the Father’s 
many mansions. May the record of their lives be an 
inspiration to us and to those who come after us, and 
grant that their beloved ones may go forward with perfect 
faith in— 

That God, which ever lives and loves, 

One God, one law, one element, 

And one far-off, divine event, 

To which the whole creation moves. 

Amen. 


[43] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


The Journal of the proceedings of yesterday was read 
and approved. 

Mr. Rucker of Colorado took the chair as Speaker pro 
tempore. 

Mr. Taylor of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I offer the fol¬ 
lowing resolutions, which I send to the Clerk’s desk to 
have read. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Resolved, That the business of the House be now suspended 
that opportunity may be given for tributes to the memory of 
Hon. Charles James Hughes, Jr., late a Senator of the United 
States from the State of Colorado. 

Resolved, That as a particular mark of respect to the memory 
of the deceased and in recognition of his distinguished public 
career, the House, at the conclusion of these exercises, shall 
stand adjourned. 

Resolved, That the Clerk communicate these resolutions to the 
Senate. 

Resolved, That the Clerk send a copy of these resolutions to the 
family of the deceased. 

The Speaker pro tempore. The question is on the adop¬ 
tion of the resolutions. 

The resolutions were agreed to. 


[44] 




MEMORIAL ADDRESSES 


Address of Mr. Taylor, of Colorado 

Mr. Speaker: It is with a profound sense of sorrow that 
I arise to pay a brief and parting tribute to the memory 
of the distinguished junior Senator from the State of 
Colorado, whom I have known and admired from my 
boyhood days. 

It is a melancholy task to lay a wreath of affection 
upon the grave of a departed friend. But it is fitting 
that we who knew him and watched with pride his 
brilliant career should here commemorate the many 
admirable qualities of that remarkably strong and 
attractive personality. 

The Hon. Charles James Hughes, Jr., was born in 
Kingston, Caldwell County, Mo., February 16, 1853. He 
was the son of Charles James and Cerena C. (Pollard) 
Hughes. He was a descendant of an old Virginia family, 
that moved to Kentucky in early days and afterwards 
moved to the State of Missouri. He was raised in a 
legal and political atmosphere. His father was one of 
the most prominent attorneys in Missouri, and at one 
time there were four noted members of the Hughes 
family in active public life in the State, and afterwards 
Gen. Bela M. Hughes became one of the most distin¬ 
guished citizens and lawyers of Colorado. 

As a boy Senator Hughes attended the common schools 
of Ray County, Mo., and was graduated from Richmond 
(Mo.) College in 1871. He studied law at the University 
of Missouri, and was afterwards honored by the degree 


[45] 



Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


of doctor of laws from both the University of Missouri 
and the University of Denver. He was a teacher in the 
public schools, and also a college professor for five years. 

On September 1, 1874, he was married to Miss Lucy S. 
Menefee. He began the practice of law in August, 1877, 
and located in Denver, Colo., in 1879, and resided there 
until the time of his death. Both as a student and as 
a lawyer he was always an indefatigable worker. He 
supplemented his education with studies in higher 
mathematics, languages, political economy, and the 
sciences most intimately connected with his legal prac¬ 
tice, including engineering, chemistry, geology, mineral¬ 
ogy, irrigation, and hydraulic engineering, and at the 
time of his death he possessed one of the finest libraries 
in the West. He built up the most extensive and lucra¬ 
tive law practice that has ever been enjoyed by any one 
attorney in the Rocky Mountain region. 

His remarkable success in the practice of the law was 
the reward of profound learning and exceptional natural 
ability, coupled with his invariable carefulness and 
thorough preparation of all his cases. While he was a 
most profound lawyer and formidable adversary in any 
branch of the law, from the beginning he gave special 
attention to mining and irrigation litigation, and he has 
been one of the leading attorneys in practically every 
important mining case throughout the Rocky Mountain 
States for the past quarter of a century. 

He lectured on the subject of “ Mining law ” before the 
Harvard Law School and was for many years professor 
of mining law in the law department of the University 
of Denver. He constantly appeared before the United 
States courts of the eighth circuit and before the Supreme 
Court of the United States. There was never a dav dur¬ 
ing a period of over 20 years prior to his entering upon 
his duties as Senator from our State that there were not 




Address of Mr. Taylor, of Colorado 


many millions of dollars’ worth of property intrusted to 
and dependent upon his skill and energy for protection; 
and during all of that time, and notwithstanding the 
intense bitterness which much of that litigation engen¬ 
dered, there has never been the slightest question as to 
his superb ability or absolute fidelity to the interests of 
his clients. 

He was a Democrat of the old school, true to the teach¬ 
ings of the fathers, and he always liberally contributed 
money and of his most valuable time in furtherance of 
his party’s success. He never held any public office prior 
to his election to the United States Senate, with the excep¬ 
tion of being a most valuable member of the State board 
of capitol managers which built Colorado’s magnificent 
statehouse. He was many times tendered various honors 
by the State. Twice the nomination for governor of the 
State was tendered him, but each time he declined. He 
was elected as Democratic presidential elector in 1900. 
He was also a delegate to the Democratic national con¬ 
ventions of 1904 and 1908. At the time of his death he 
was a member of the American Bar Association, Ameri¬ 
can Institute of Mining Engineers, Colorado Historical 
Society, Denver Club, Denver Athletic Club, Denver Uni¬ 
versity, El Paso Club, Strollers Club of New York, and a 
member and ex-president of the Denver Country Club, 
and was president of the Colorado Southern Society. 

In the practice of the law he had amassed a large for¬ 
tune, and every dollar of it was clean and honorably 
earned money. At the time of his nomination he volun¬ 
tarily promised to, and unqualifiedly kept the faith with 
his constituents and did, relinquish all of his vast law 
practice on his election, so that nothing might hamper 
him in his senatorial duties. 

His election to the office of United States Senator was 
practically by popular vote. In the primaries and county 


[47] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


conventions throughout the State in the summer of 1908 
the delegates to the State convention that met in Septem¬ 
ber were largely instructed for him; and the State con¬ 
vention unanimously indorsed him for the United States 
Senate, and all State senators and representatives who ran 
during that campaign were thereby publicly instructed, if 
elected, to cast their votes for him in the legislature. On 
January 20, 1909, he received the unanimous vote of all 
the Democratic senators and representatives, being 73 out 
of the total membership of 100 in our legislature. 

After his nomination to the United States Senate, I had 
the pleasure and profit of being billed to speak along with 
him during a large portion of the campaign of 1908. I 
was intimately associated with him, and I know that no 
one ever more profoundly appreciated the honor that the 
people were conferring upon him or had a more sincere 
and honorable determination to become a worthy suc¬ 
cessor of Colorado’s illustrious senior Senator, the Hon. 
Henry M. Teller. 

During that strenuous campaign, and in closing up his 
tremendous amount of business prior to entering the 
Senate, he had become overworked, and was sorely in 
need of rest when he entered the Senate in March, 1909. 
But instead of taking the rest and recreation which he 
should have done, he plunged into an intricate and most 
exhaustive study of the tariff. I mean no reflection upon 
anyone else when I say that from my personal observa¬ 
tion I do not believe there was another Member of either 
the Senate or of this House who put in the same num¬ 
ber of hours that he did, day and night, for five months 
in a most profound and detailed study of all the thou¬ 
sands of items of the various tariff schedules and of the 
principles and history of tariff legislation. The natural 
result was that, in the judgment of many, no other Mem¬ 
ber in either the Senate or House possessed more, if as 


[48] 




Address of Mr. Taylor, of Colorado 


much, concrete information upon the subject as he did 
at the time of the passage of the Payne tariff bill. Out 
of my kindly feeling and hope for his future career 
I mildly remonstrated with him for working so hard; but 
he could not slacken the pace; he was simply following 
his invariable custom of exhaustively mastering every 
subject with which he was connected. He was at the 
same time constantly studying the rules and practice of 
the Senate and its procedure and history. He had never 
had any experience in parliamentary or legislative pro¬ 
ceedings; and he said to me one day in the Senate, when 
I was consulting with him, as I frequently did, that the 
senatorial rules and customs were harder for him to 
thoroughly learn than even the tariff itself. 

During the long session of Congress, from December, 
1909, to the latter part of June, 1910, he was a member 
of the Public Lands Committee of the Senate; and being a 
member of the same committee in the House, I again 
had the good fortune of being intimately associated with 
him and of seeing him almost daily during those seven 
months; and I think I probably know better than any¬ 
one else the immense service which he rendered to the 
West in general, and to Colorado in particular, during 
that session of Congress. While his great speech against 
the public-land withdrawal bill was not sufficient to pre¬ 
vent its passage, yet he was entitled to much of the credit 
for compelling the insertion of five amendments that 
are and will be of very great and lasting importance to 
our country, after a few of us had valiantly fought for 
and failed to secure them in the House. The amendment 
protecting the rights of the miners and homesteaders on 
the public domain, and of the oil, gas, and other bona fide 
locators who had not yet secured title; and the provision 
preventing the President from taking from Congress the 
right to enlarge the forest reserves in six of our Western 


93226°—11 


-4 


[49] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


States, as well as the provision making the withdrawals 
temporary instead of permanent, were all largely due to 
his instinctive loyalty to the West and his forcible and 
diligent efforts. His speech and labors in connection with 
that measure were to my mind the most effective and 
lasting service that he rendered to the public during his 
brief senatorial career. 

Few, if any, men have ever been better equipped, both 
by nature and by preparation, or ever entered upon the 
duties of a United States Senator with a greater apprecia¬ 
tion of its honor or with a more lofty ambition to make a 
record of which his State and the Nation would be proud; 
and certainly no State ever sent her favorite son to the 
Capitol of our country with more hope or implicit con¬ 
fidence in his future achievements. But his intense appli¬ 
cation and almost unremittent toil, and the tremendous 
responsibilities resting upon him, had begun to make 
inroads upon his strength and constitution, so that he was 
doomed to the most pathetic disappointment, and our 
State to experience the greatest loss that has ever befallen 
her in the death of any one person during the entire 
history of our Commonwealth. But, notwithstanding he 
was sorely handicapped and afflicted by failing health 
and strength all the time, he made a record during his 
brief career of only two sessions in the Senate of which 
the State, his friends and colleagues, and the country at 
large are proud. 

While I feel that the Senate never knew him at his 
best or in the prime of his vigor, yet the few speeches 
that he made and the active part he took upon the com¬ 
mittee of which he was a member and his participation 
in debates upon the floor of the Senate were universally 
recognized as foreshadowing a most brilliant career in 
that august body. He was one of the shrewdest, quickest, 
most courageous, and formidable debaters I have ever 


[50] 




Address of Mr. Taylor, of Colorado 


known. He was a fluent and rapid speaker, with a won¬ 
derful vocabulary. His ability as a public speaker, his 
profound learning in the law, his knowledge of history 
and great fund of information on public questions, well 
fitted him to be one of the leaders of his party and one 
of the Nation’s great statesmen. His untimely death was, 
indeed, an ineffable loss, not only to his constituents, but 
to the country as a whole. The State of Colorado has 
lost a faithful and most distinguished son, and all of us 
who knew him a charming and loyal friend. The loss to 
the country, to the Senate, and to our State comes at a 
time when we can ill afford to be deprived of his superb 
abilities. His mind and memory were a marvelous 
storehouse of knowledge that would have been of untold 
benefit to this country had he been spared to use them. 
His loss to the West can not be adequately put in words, 
and his full appreciation must be left to the contempla¬ 
tion of those who knew and admired him, as we of his 
State did. 

He was in the truest sense a high ideal of a model and 
exemplary citizen. He was public-spirited, philan¬ 
thropic, and always liberally responded to worthy chari¬ 
table appeals. One of his most admirable characteristics 
was the simple and straightforward method with which 
he went at everything, whether law, business, or politics; 
he knew but one way, and that was direct. Oftentimes 
results might have been accomplished by devious, yet 
honorable, means, but he never adopted them, prefer¬ 
ring always the direct road, even where the obstacles 
seemed almost insurmountable. After all, that was un¬ 
doubtedly one of the sources of his great strength, for 
he never had to look back or think twice as to what had 
occurred in the past. He knew that each present act 
was in full sympathy and harmony with all that had 
gone before, because they were all dictated by the same 
manly principle. 


[51 j 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


I count it one of the rare good fortunes of my life to 
have known Senator Hughes. His marvelously success¬ 
ful career has been a beacon light to me for nearly 30 
years. His life is an inspiration to young American man¬ 
hood. It enlarges the ideals of life to have known such 
a man. We do well to honor the memory of men who 
have manfully fought the battles of life and made a 
splendid success. 

He was a fearless and ready fighter; he struck hard 
and did not flinch from the return. But he always fought 
in the open, with honest, manly weapons. While he had 
a keen sarcasm, a caustic wit, and his tongue could utter 
bitter words, which fell like a whip and left a scar, yet he 
only employed his marvelous powers of invective when 
he was certain the subject amply warranted it. He was, 
indeed, one of the great lawyers of this country. I 
believe he was the most profoundly learned in mining 
law and the greatest trial mining lawyer this Nation or 
the world has ever produced. He met Napoleon’s test— 
he did things—great things, that were worth while. I 
doubt if this generation in Colorado will ever look upon 
his like again. 

Colorado was supremely proud to feel that when the 
roll of States was called in the United States Senate 
Charles J. Hughes, Jr., would be one of those who 
would answer for the Centennial State. 

There was no pretense or affectation in his nature. He 
disliked notoriety and despised cant, sham, and hypoc¬ 
risy. He never looked for applause or tried to get into 
the spot light. He did many acts of public service that 
never appeared in the press. He believed in and his life 
exemplified the sentiment: 

This above all—to thine own self be true; 

And it must follow, as the night the day, 

Thou canst not then be false to any man. 


[52] 




Address of Mr. Taylor, of Colorado 


No words at my command will as vividly or impres¬ 
sively portray the characteristics of Senator Hughes and 
his loss to the Republic as a brief extract from his own 
language in the Senate on May 21, 1910, in his eloquent 
eulogy upon the late Congressman David A. De Armond, 
of Missouri. Referring to Judge De Armond, the Senator 
said: 

He came necessarily an unheralded man into public life here; 
but it was not long before the body in which he served, before 
the people of the country, came to know that a new force had 
entered into the political life of America, and that another great 
mind was dealing with the subjects of public discussion, with 
the perplexing problems which must be dealt with in legislation. 
His intellect was sunlight—clear and penetrating. His power of 
expression was capable of presenting with directness and preci¬ 
sion the thoughts which were so clear to his own mind. This 
made him a powerful advocate, a dangerous antagonist in debate, 
a tower of strength to the principles which he advocated and to 
the party to which he belonged. He had not more than begun 
in their fruitfulness to enjoy the results of his continued and 
arduous labors when his tragic taking off startled the American 
public. It was a sad and unexpected and wasteful termination 
of a great and useful life. This untimely ending, this quenching 
of the fires of his intellectual energy could only bring sorrow 
alike to friends and opponents, for whether we agreed with him 
or differed from him, all recognized that he brought to the dis¬ 
cussion of every great subject something new, something of 
force, something of clear analysis, which tended to a better 
comprehension of the real matters of dispute or inquiry. Our 
public life, with its strength and wealth of endowment, could 
ill afford this loss. A great State needed him longer, as did 
the Republic and the great party to whose principles he was 
devoted and which he ever loyally urged and valiantly defended. 
Knowing his qualities, recognizing his ability, belonging to the 
party whose tenets he maintained, I have sorrowed with those 
who mourn his loss and grieved that the great State of Missouri 
should have been deprived thus sadly of the services of one of 
her most distinguished sons. 


[53] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


How strikingly fitting and appropriate is that language 
to himself; how forcibly and eloquently it is expressed; 
and how little did he dream that in a few short months 
we would be here assembled in these commemorative 
ceremonies, and be thus sadly but affectionately applying 
those great attributes of a statesman to himself. 

I have often listened with rapt admiration to his charm¬ 
ing flow of language, his forceful eloquence, and unan¬ 
swerable logic; and as I contemplate his admirably 
trained memory and wonderfully polished mind I am 
reminded of a comparison that I once heard by the Rev. 
Myron W. Reed, one of the most noted ministers and 
charming characters the West has ever known. He has 
long since gone to his reward, but his memory and 
myriads of kind words and deeds are affectionately cher¬ 
ished by the many thousands of our people who loved 
him. It is nearly a quarter of a century ago, but I remem¬ 
ber his words as though they were of yesterday. In 
preaching my father’s funeral oration he compared the 
well-developed man to the building of King Solomon’s 
temple. He said: 

Each piece was made perfect, and when all was ready the 
temple rose without noise, or ax, or chisel, or saw, or hammer. 
The temple grew like a plant, came together without friction. 
And so the highest type of man comes together like the temple. 
He is a miracle to us when we behold him, but when we study 
him he is a result. He is the product of all his thoughts and 
deeds since he was born. Besides that, his environments have 
largely contributed to him. 

The superbly developed mind of Senator Hughes was 
the result of great natural abilities, coupled with a clean 
life, worthy ambitions, and intense industry. 

He delivered but few speeches during his brief career 
in the Senate. The first one, upon the Court of Com¬ 
merce, brought him at once into prominence throughout 


[54] 




Address of Mr. Taylor, of Colorado 


the entire Nation. But his greatest and last speech, with 
the exception of a very brief address upon the postal 
savings-bank law, was the one delivered on June 14 last, 
just before the close of Congress, against the bill authoriz¬ 
ing the President to withdraw the public lands from entry. 
I sat beside him in the Senate when he delivered that 
splendid address. I wish that the entire Nation could 
have heard it. He was physically frail, and he spoke with 
the greatest exertion. But his mind was so bright and his 
love of the West was so great that he was thoroughly 
aroused and indignant at what he believed was an out¬ 
rage being perpetrated upon the rights of the West and 
the welfare of our people. The greatest triumphs of his 
life had been achieved in mining litigation. He was a 
friend of the prospectors and the miners and pioneers of 
our State, and when he felt that their rights were being 
ruthlessly trampled upon he would have belied his very 
nature had he remained silent, and in this, almost his 
last public utterance in this life, and only about a week 
before he was to leave the Senate Chamber forever, his 
eloquent and masterly voice was raised in behalf of the 
miners and the settlers upon the public domain. In 
closing his address, he said: 

The great men in this body who had been born upon the 
frontiers of the older States, men who had been the associates 
of those great men—of Lincoln, when he won his reputation as 
a rail splitter, an accomplishment which would lead to his being 
denounced if he lived to-day as a vandal, a destroyer of glorious 
forests—dealt with that subject, and they said a better fate is 
reserved for this West than the one to which you would con¬ 
demn it. It is the theory and spirit of our law and our institu¬ 
tions that homes shall be founded, that the people shall own the 
land, and that the Government, as speedily as it may, shall dis¬ 
charge the trust which it holds, and out of multiplied growth and 
the development of the lands, in individual holdings, get a return 
which no high price they might exact from its citizens would 
compensate. 


[55] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


I do not care what the pretext may be; I can not believe that 
the true, genuine American is going to forget or is going to con¬ 
demn the spirit which when manifested in former times he has 
hailed as a splendid exhibition of true Americanism, simply 
because it is a little farther west just now, and its assertion may 
interfere with the fad or the fancy of some gentleman with 
more leisure than acquaintance with the wants and needs of the 
people. 

Mr. President, it has been my belief often, when I have reflected 
deeply upon the grave problems with which we deal, that no 
man is fully qualified to know the measures, or the extent, and 
the penetration of these laws who has not at some time felt the 
touch of poverty and the hunger for a home, that home which 
some have not enjoyed, and that he must place himself as well 
as he may by sympathy—and thousands do it—in the position 
of his less-favored fellow citizens, less favored by the chance of 
fortune and of birth, but none the less favored by the oppor¬ 
tunities which this Government of equal rights asserts. Now, 
give to the West these rights, and a thousand times over they 
will repay the burden of the obligation, or the debt of gratitude, 
if that is what you choose to call it, which you have placed upon 
them, or a thousand times over they will regard in grateful per¬ 
formance every promise they have made and may make, and 
you shall be proudly boastful of your participation in the enact¬ 
ment of laws which have not hindered but have helped them in 
their helpful growth and in the universally distributed rewards 
of their development. 

Mr. Speaker, our lives are guideposts to others in 
the journey along the pathway of life, and Senator 
Hughes’s whole life exemplified what may be accom¬ 
plished by unswerving honesty and a heroic determina¬ 
tion to make a success of whatever we undertake. 
Words are all too poor to express our grief at his un¬ 
timely taking off. A great life has been prematurely 
snuffed out. 

As a husband and father Senator Hughes approached 
the domain of a perfect man. No friend, however inti¬ 
mate in professional or political life, could ever fully 


[561 




Address of Mr. Taylor, of Colorado 


appreciate the charming domestic side of his nature 
unless lie also saw him within his home and library. To 
his family and intimate friends his great attainments in 
public affairs and remarkable success in his profession 
were even overshadowed, or for the time being forgot¬ 
ten, in the broad catholic knowledge which he received 
from his library and which he constantly gave to his 
home and family. He was blessed with a noble wife, 
whom he adored; with three splendid sons and a charm¬ 
ing daughter, in whom the ambitions of his life were 
worthily centered. To those, bone of his bone and flesh 
of his flesh, our heartfelt sympathy is extended. Though 
grieving over his loss we take comfort from the contem¬ 
plation of his illustrious career, and chastened by the 
affliction now upon us may we strive to emulate his 
example and realize that the greatest tribute we can 
pay to his memory is to so live that our lives may in 
part resemble his; and when the grim reaper, who know- 
eth neither rank nor distinction, but comes to all the 
sons of man, shall beckon to us we may leave the world 
a little better for our having lived. For many years to 
come his devoted family and friends in Colorado will 
long 

For the touch of a vanished hand, 

And the sound of a voice that is still. 

He died on the 11th day of January, 1911, at his home 
in the city of Denver, after a long and sad illness, and 
his mortal remains rest in a vault in the beautiful Fair- 
mount Cemetery, in the Queen City of the mountain and 
plains, which he honored and loved so well. His death 
came as a personal bereavement to every citizen of our 
State, and at the time of his funeral the entire popula¬ 
tion throughout the length and breadth of that vast Com¬ 
monwealth suspended business and stood with bowed 
and reverend heads and silently evinced their sadness 


[57] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


over the loss of this splendid son. In the vigor of his 
manhood, in the noonday of his life, in the fullness of 
his intellectual powers, when best prepared by learning 
and experience to worthily serve his State and his coun¬ 
try in that high office to which he had been so recently 
elevated, death has removed him from the field of this 
world’s labor. 

Upon the trestle board of hope he had long before traced the 
design of his own life's edifice—a structure which should be 
useful and true and fair and lofty. Patiently and faithfully had 
he builded until its fair proportions foreshadowed its future 
grandeur. And when it had reached that stage of completion 
from whence he could clearly discern the culmination of all his 
endeavors, the fruition of his life’s ambition and his heart’s 
fairest hopes, the stroke of death fell upon him and all his noble 
resolutions and lofty purposes were as a dream that is past. 

To me the two most solemn and impressive poems I 
have ever known are Gray’s Elegy and the Psalm of life: 

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 

And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave, 

Await alike the inevitable hour; 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 

The character of such a man as Senator Hughes is 
entitled to much more than a passing word. He was not 
only a credit to his constituents, he was an honor to the 
Nation, to his native and his adopted State, and the two 
universities that had honored him; and we do but honor 
ourselves by discharging the duty of paying an humble 
tribute to his memory, and it is fitting that our testi¬ 
monials of esteem and affection should be spread upon 
the records of this distinguished body— 

That, perhaps, another 

Sailing o’er life’s solemn main, 

A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, 

Seeing, may take heart again. 


[58] 




Address of Mr. Taylor, of Colorado 


Mr. Speaker, I have presented but a very brief and im¬ 
perfect outline of Senator Hughes’s life, characteristics, 
and wonderfully successful career. He was in reality a 
splendidly developed and really remarkable man. His 
thoughts were what have been called living rays of intel¬ 
ligent light. His mind was like a rare gem—many-sided 
and all of them bright. His death was inexpressibly 
pathetic. He has left his family and legions of friends, 
and his State, a great loss and an unspeakable sorrow,, 
but he has also left them the glorious legacy of a great 
record and a stainless name. He kept the faith; he 
fought a good tight; he nobly performed his duty to the 
last; he died in the service of his country. He had no 
fear of anything in this world or the next, and when 
the court of last resort issued its final summons to him 
he manfully bade farewell to his family and all earthly 
things and quietly journeyed to that undiscovered coun¬ 
try from whose bourne no traveler returns. 

With a cheery smile and a wave of the hand, 

He has wandered into an unknown land. 

Our State and the entire West is better for his having 
lived. He loved Colorado, and he was ever to her an 
affectionate and dutiful son. I know of no rule for meas¬ 
uring human greatness. The standard changes with each 
age and generation. But it can be confidently said that 
when the future historian of our State shall write the 
faithful record of the men who made Colorado truly 
great the name of Charles James Hughes, Jr., profound 
scholar, lawyer, orator, and statesman, will shine with a 
brilliant luster among the State’s greatest men. 

Mr. Speaker, I was indeed gratified when you granted 
my motion designating these ceremonies upon the birth¬ 
day of Abraham Lincoln. It is a legal holiday in our 
State, and the hearts and thoughts of 800,000 people in 


[501 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


our mountain home are to-day reverently turned toward 
this House. 

The eloquent reference to President Lincoln in the clos¬ 
ing remarks of what was doomed to be the Senator’s fare¬ 
well speech in the United States Senate seems prophet¬ 
ically coincident, and brings forcibly to my mind the 
President’s immortal address on the battlefield of Gettys¬ 
burg; and I can not more fittingly close my humble 
tribute than in paraphrasing the words of the martyred 
President by saying: The world will little know nor long 
remember what we say here. But the State of Colorado 
will long remember what Charles J. Hughes, Jr., did. It 
is for us, the living, to be here dedicated to the great task 
of taking up and carrying on the unfinished work which 
he and others have left, and, inspired by their illustrious 
example, prove ourselves worthy of the trust which this 
Nation has imposed on us. 

And following Lincoln’s letter of sympathy to the 
bereaved mother of five sons who had died gloriously on 
the field of battle, I will conclude by saying to the Sen¬ 
ator’s family: I feel how weak and fruitless must be any 
words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from 
your grief for a loss so overwhelming, but I can not 
refrain from tendering to you the consolation which may 
be found in the thanks of the State and the Nation, which 
he served so nobly. 1 pray that our Heavenly Father 
may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and 
leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and 
lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid 
so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of professional and 
public duty. 




Address of Mr. Mondell, of Wyoming 

Mr. Speaker: Again we are reminded that the ways 
of Providence are beyond human understanding, and 
that the divinity which shapes our lives and orders our 
ends moves in mysterious ways, whose aims and pur¬ 
poses may not be fathomed by our philosophy. 

He whose virtues and public services we are met to 
commemorate, though he left behind him the record of 
a long, useful, and illustrious career, yet from the stand¬ 
point of human expectations had but entered upon the 
threshold of what promised to be his crowning oppor¬ 
tunity of public service, and in his death, to the sorrow 
that attends the passing of the loved and honored is 
added the deep and lasting regret which we must all feel 
in the loss of one unusually gifted and thoroughly pre¬ 
pared for, and wholly consecrated to, the public service. 

Charles J. Hughes was a forceful and virile representa¬ 
tive of the best of American types. He inherited, through 
pioneer ancestry, the best traditions of the chivalry of the 
Old Dominion, of the high courage of pioneer Kentucky, 
to which his own experience added stalwart, wholesome 
views of life acquired in the grand old Commonwealth 
of Missouri, supplemented, enriched, and enlarged by the 
broadened horizon—physical, political, and social—of 
the splendid mountain Commonwealth which became his 
home. With such a heritage of ancestry, of experience, 
of opportunity, blessed with an energetic spirit and a 
powerful intellect, it was but natural that he in whose 
honor we are gathered to-day should become a leader 
among men, a master of his profession, a genius in 


[ 61 ] 


Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


getting at the very root and heart of every problem which 
confronted him, of every theme and subject that chal¬ 
lenged his attention or presented itself for solution; of 
those things to which he gave his mind and heart—and 
they were many—he became the master, pursuing them 
unwearied and unsatisfied until he could rest in the 
consciousness of a thorough and complete understanding. 

All times, every locality, have their special and 
peculiar dominating problems, and to the mighty prob¬ 
lems peculiar to the intermountain West the future Sena¬ 
tor steadfastly and persistently, declining to be turned 
aside by flattering offers of political preferment, 
addressed himself with all of his tireless energy and his 
powerful mentality, with the result that he became recog¬ 
nized as the leading authority of the region in which he 
lived in the important and intricate questions of mining 
and irrigation law. Then, and then only, did he consent 
to give his proven and matured talents to the public 
service. 

In the death of Charles J. Hughes the whole country 
has suffered a great and permanent loss, but the loss is 
and will be the more keenly felt in the intermountain 
West, for there his talents were best known, and because 
he was by location, inclination, and equipment peculiarly 
the champion of that portion of the country. Honored 
and beloved by its people, familiar and in sympathy with 
its problems, and equipped with every needful gift and 
talent, native and acquired, these rendered him an in¬ 
trepid and forceful champion and spokesman of the 
region from which he hailed. 

And so I am constrained to repeat the thought uttered 
in the opening of my remarks, that the ways of Provi¬ 
dence are beyond human understanding, else why should 
one so gifted, so equipped, so devoted, be halted on the 
very threshold of opportunity for wide and useful serv- 


[621 




Address of Mr. Mondell, of Wyoming 


ice; called from the helpful activities of an honorable 
ambition, but lately realized, to the shades and repose of 
death? We can not fathom or understand the decrees of 
Providence which call from service the bravest and the 
brightest and the best, but we can, from the lessons of 
their lives, renew our devotion to the cause of right 
which they served, to the end that we, too, may be pre¬ 
pared whenever the summons comes, and in the hope 
that we may deserve the honor and praise we gladly 
render to the memory of Charles J. Hughes. 

Mr. Martin of Colorado took the chair as Speaker pro 
tempore. 


[63] 




Address of Mr. Rucker, of Colorado 


Mr. Speaker: It was my good fortune to have known 
the deceased Senator longer than did any Member of 
this or of the distinguished body to which he belonged. 
At the round of the reaper which cut him down we 
were entering upon the second lap of a decade that 
would have rounded out a half century of acquaintance¬ 
ship. He was studying law just across the Missouri 
River, at Richmond, when I was beginning its practice 
at Lexington, in the State for which the river was 
named; but a few years thence, as by fate and as the 
broad channel of the greatest of rivers separated our 
homes in the beginning, and though we came together 
in the close relationship of attorneys at the same bar, 
we were, however, separated on every occasion by being 
opposing counsel in nearly all the great mining contro¬ 
versies of our State. These conflicts were mighty, as 
well as many; they and their echoes ran over a period 
of 30 years. Yes; I knew him well. I estimated him as 
highly for his transcendent ability as I feared his power 
and admired his personality. 

That great river, the Missouri, is known as the slimiest, 
muddiest, and most unattractive of all our great streams. 
The controversies which put us on opposite sides of the 
table in court, as often the case, often resulted in much 
competition, exhibition of impatience, ugly moods, riled 
feelings, and intemperate words, but, unlike the waters 
of the “ Great Muddy ” that never become clear, no 
sooner than the threshold of the scene of such conflict 
was passed than between us it was again “ Charley ” 
with me and “Ad ” with him, just as it had ever been. 
We would, arm in arm, possibly, proceed to some near-by 


[64] 


Address of Mr. Rucker, of Colorado 


restaurant or to our offices or homes and, instead of a 
discussion of the case on trial, recurrence would be had 
to some incident common to both our memories in the 
early days, which would bring laughter to our lips and 
joy to both our hearts. 

Mr. Speaker, others will, in this as did others in the 
Chamber at the other end of this Capitol yesterday, dwell 
upon his colossal intellect, his indomitable courage, his 
power as an orator, his matchless and marvelous ability 
as a lawyer and statesman, but I prefer to talk about 
and remember him as I believe he would have me. He 
would not have me indulge in fulsome praise, but rather 
to tell of him as a comrade, confidant, and friend. He 
was utterly and equally indifferent to praise and adverse 
criticism, unless the latter approached, in his judgment, 
the question of honor, of and concerning which he was 
jealous to a fault. 

This trait in his character and his high ideals of 
patriotism can not be better illustrated than by referring 
to an incident occurring in the Senate Chamber just 
after his entrance there, which will fairly illustrate his 
power of oratory as well. 

Under a misapprehension of the purport of some re¬ 
marks made by a brother Senator, he said: 

I wish to admonish him here and now that, much as he looms 
up on the horizon of debate, in the Senate, he is no inch taller 
than I when it comes to the avowal of principles and the right to 
speak and be heard unchallenged, uncriticized, and undominated 
by any influence save my own judgment and my own political 
conscience. 

These utterances, delivered in a voice modulated to the 
exactness of filling that Chamber, with nothing over, was 
an electric shock as unexpected by his colleagues as to 
him were the congratulations which they showered upon 
him. 


93226°—11-5 


[65] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


It may be asked why, endowed as he was, he had never 
held a political position before his election to the Senate. 
I am peculiarly qualified to answer such a suggestion. 
There was never a State election in the last 25 years that 
he could not have been the standard bearer of his party. 
Likewise, it is true, he could have come to the Senate 12 
years ago, or again 6 years ago, had he so desired, and 
his acceptance of the senatorship 2 years ago was 
brought about only by the pressure of his friends. His 
reticence, modesty, diffidence, or whatever you may call 
it, marked his own estimate of his strength, and is in 
contrast with his peerless power when aroused to action. 
He was at once as docile as a child, courageous as a lion, 
and as merciful as human nature admitted. 

Of all my acquaintances, I never knew one who was not 
more sensitive to a joke at his own expense. To illus¬ 
trate: He made an argument in one of the historic cases 
arising in Colorado and spoke for 15 days. At the end of 
the fifteenth day his client presented him with a superb 
gem for a stick pin costing $15,000. He seldom wore it, 
but whenever I caught him in company with others, point¬ 
ing to the stick pin he was wearing, I would say: “ By the 
way, Charley, is that the $15,000 pin given you by Mr. 
Mofiit on the fifteenth day of that speech of yours to get 
you to stop talking?” With a hearty laugh he would 
proceed to turn the tables on me, to my vanquishment 
and discomfort. 

The evenings we spent together at our hotel, where we 
occupied adjoining rooms last session, will always be 
recalled in memory for the enjoyment and profit brought 
me. We can do nothing further for him, but may his 
bereaved family and legion of friends feel and know 
that— 

Death is dawn, 

The waking from a weary night 

Of fevers unto truth and light. 

Mr. Taylor of Colorado resumed the chair. 


[66] 




I 


Address of Mr. Martin, of Colorado 

Mr. Speaker: Had Charles J. Hughes, Jr., late a Sena¬ 
tor from the State of Colorado, lived the allotted span, he 
would have written upon the scrolls of Congress a record 
eulogistic and enduring far beyond my gift of words. I 
do not know what we would have said of him as finis to 
the record which he was scarcely permitted to open ere 
it was closed, but the ever-recurring thought that strikes 
in me the strongest and deepest chord of feeling is that 
the passing of this man, at the time and in the circum¬ 
stances, was a tragedy. His was not the sunset at the 
evening; it was an eclipse at the zenith. His was not the 
gleaning of the reaper when the o’erripe grain bends to 
kiss the sickle; it was the blasting of a field in bloom 
and rich with the promise of a bursting harvest. He had 
but stepped upon the stage, and the first lines from his 
eloquent lips were still music in the ears of an enrap¬ 
tured audience, when the lights darkened, the curtain 
fell, and only the sweep of a wing was heard upon the 
air. 

Limited, indeed, is the number from out the millions 
who may attain that exalted station, and some there be 
who come through great riches, and some there be who 
come through eminence in unkindred fields, and some 
there be tossed up here and there in the ever-clashing 
tides of political life, where heavier men sink; but he 
came to his own place, with every qualification upon his 
credentials to mark him a statesman, a Senator of 
Senators. 

My contribution to these memorial services shall be 
an appreciation, rather than a biography; an index of 


[67] 


Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


the distinguishing attributes of the man rather than a 
catalogue of things common—and in equal degree—to all 
men; as that: On this day he was born; on that, married; 
on another, died. Thus we may come at some just 
estimate of him, some accounting for his sudden transi¬ 
tion from the obscurity of private life to leadership in 
the United States Senate. By many ways he might have 
come at the opportunity, but in only one way, that of 
utter fitness, could he have measured up to its full 
possibilities. 

To say that Mr. Hughes was the premier of the Rocky 
Mountain bar is to say that he was a great lawyer, and it 
was said of him by a distinguished adversary before the 
Supreme Court of the United States that he was the great¬ 
est mining lawyer in the world. And he was equally 
strong in every branch of his case. He had as clients the 
mining princes, the empire builders, the conquerors of the 
West. In many of their vast enterprises he was the legal 
pathfinder, whose explorations are an imperishable part 
of the jurisprudence of the West. But, best of all, and as 
throwing a flood of light upon his human side, he was the 
son of an able lawyer and his partner and companion; he 
was the father of able lawyers and their partner and com¬ 
panion. Men from the humbler walks, and many such 
he numbered among his warmest friends, have expressed 
surprise that a lawyer whose clientage was a roll call of 
the big men of the West, and who was himself a man of 
large affairs, found his chief pleasure in just sitting down 
and talking to them; in letting the outer office wait upon 
an hour of story telling and reminiscence and of intimate 
companionship. Let them read the explanation in the 
above brief mention of his family ties. 

Charles J. Hughes, Jr., was endowed with a mind that 
entered him in the race of life abreast of the fleetest, and 
which, given character, assured endurance to every goal. 


[68] 




Address of Mr. Martin, of Colorado 


His was a brain of exceptional power and capacity, and 
his mental processes were lucid, logical, and exact, cutting 
true as a diamond, leaving neither chip nor flaw. With 
him, thinking was so nearly an exact science that he 
stripped the issue consecutively and in all its aspects 
from premise to conclusion. To borrow a mechanical 
phrase, his mind was singularly true, but with a breadth 
of vision which enabled him to see the situation as a 
whole and in all its parts and relations, as a general 
might see from an eminence the true proportions of 
the battle and all his forces in action. I believe it can 
be truthfully said of Mr. Hughes that no opponent ever 
hoped to win from him by defect in his plans or failure 
in their execution. 

The logic of his thought was complemented by a felicity 
of expression which gave the impression of utmost ease. 
Slurring or inexact terms were never the vehicle of his 
thought, and the facility with which he unfailingly fitted 
the word to the idea marked him as a master of diction. 
The very simplicity of his style robbed it of the appear¬ 
ance of laborious effort, and made the observer feel that 
he, too, bore within him the powers of great accomplish¬ 
ment, similarly as one is impressed by the movements of 
perfect physical performance. 

This master mind had as handmaiden a marvelous 
memory. Often, for a moment, have I divided attention 
to his narrative with speculation that a brain so charged 
with events should be such a storehouse of incidents. 
Once during a stormy factional State convention, and 
after the leaders in the struggle had spoken, he was called 
from his private affairs to appear and speak to the issue. 
Such a call under such conditions seemed impossible of 
creditable response, but the man appeared and reviewed, 
in order, the history of the warring factions, which in 
many essentials had been forgotten, at least for the 


[69] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


moment, by the very men who had part in them. Never 
himself a candidate for office until he was elected to the 
Senate a brief two years agone, he could have written 
from memory the political history of Colorado. And its 
legal history. And its general history. And a wealth of 
anecdote of the men who made all these histories. 

And this leads naturally to the most unusual side of 
this many-sided man. It leads to the reason why a man 
who had never held office, had never been officially con¬ 
cerned in public affairs, either State or national, could 
step into the Senate of the United States and at the first 
essay take rank with the leaders in that great forum. Mr. 
Hughes had a grasp of political issues and a forte for 
public affairs rarely found in a lawyer of such ability, 
so closely devoted to his profession. Often great law¬ 
yers, after rising to professional eminence, enter the 
Senate only to find themselves junior in legislative 
capacity and influence to lesser men. 

But Mr. Hughes possessed a variety of interest, fed by 
his omnivorous mind with a range of information, which 
kept him fully abreast of every public question. He 
knew labor and capital; he knew law and politics; he 
knew men and things as do few lawyers cloistered with 
their books and briefs. For 30 years he made them all a 
part of his daily routine, and amid them all he worked 
as a giant building a world about himself, yet always 
with vision fixed firmly but modestly upon the high goal 
of his life’s ambition and the crowning scene-to-be of 
his life’s activities. 

This is the reason that Mr. Hughes, at his first session 
in the Senate, could deliver a speech showing conclu¬ 
sively that no income-tax statute can be devised by Con¬ 
gress which will meet the objections of the Supreme 
Court of the United States in its last decision upon that 
great question, and that only by a reversal of that deci- 


[70] 




Address of Mr. Martin, of Colorado 


sion or by constitutional amendment can that great issue 
ever be affirmatively settled. 

This is the reason he could deliver a speech on con¬ 
servation which is a textbook on the rights of the State 
to the care and administration of its natural resources. 

This is the reason he could discuss with seasoned 
Senate students the problems of interstate commerce, an 
issue second neither to trusts nor tariff. 

This is the reason he could break a lance with the most 
skilled swordsman in debate and be hailed at his first 
adventure in the lists as another Richmond in the foren¬ 
sic field. 

Having said this much of him, one might conclude that 
this makes the full measure of a most able man; but his 
chief characteristic would be left unsaid. If genius be 
a capacity for hard work, then, indeed, was Mr. Hughes 
a genius. His adversary was beaten at the outset, for 
soon the night and rest came and in the morning his 
works were taken. Others, tiring, might lay aside their 
tools and rest or play, but he, with ceaseless energy, toiled 
on and on and on. And this was his great fault. He 
wrought mightily, working his life fiber into the weave, 
and fell exhausted upon the loom while yet the pattern 
in the weaver’s mind was but hinting its true proportions. 

And this is the pathos of his untimely passing. He 
entered his first big case at the foot of the list of counsel 
and emerged at the head. He would have been no more 
content with a minor role in the United States Senate. 
He had the ambition and the ability to win its loftiest 
honors. He came to the Senate with an equipment that 
made him at once the peer of its ablest men, and his 
recognition was instant. He came from a great new sec¬ 
tion of the Republic, presenting great new problems for 
solution, bringing with him full knowledge of all the 
conditions involved, to make him an invaluable factor in 


[71] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


their working out—in itself a vast field for statesman¬ 
ship; yet had already given earnest that he was a thinker 
in national terms, with a ready grasp of the older prob¬ 
lems of the older sections. His loss, therefore, is not sec¬ 
tional but national. 

A great lawyer, an eloquent orator, a skilled debater, 
a clear thinker, an avid student, a tireless worker, a man 
whose experience ran as a river through the birth and 
growth of a new civilization; such was Colorado’s gifted 
son; such the endowment he brought to the seats of the 
fathers; such the grievous measure of our loss. 

Death takes us by surprise, 

And stays our hurrying feet; 

The great design unfinished lies, 

Our lives are incomplete. 


[72] 




Address of Mr. Clayton, of Alabama 


Mr. Speaker: My first association with Charles J. 
Hughes, Jr., was in the month of July, 1908, when the 
national convention of the Democratic Party was held 
in the city of Denver, to which convention we were both 
delegates. Then it was that I came to know him as a 
potential man, as a leading citizen of the Centennial 
State, as a sound Democrat, and an accomplished lawyer. 
Then it was I learned the estimate put upon him by his 
neighbors, by the Democrats of his State, and by the 
members of the legal profession. He was conspicuously 
a man of affairs and was renowned in his profession. 
He was esteemed most highly as one of the guiding forces 
of his beloved Commonwealth. Indeed, Mr. Speaker, my 
first impressions of him, derived from personal observa¬ 
tion as well as from what I heard uttered by those who 
had known him long, was most favorable. No man 
could have so much as looked into the face of this man, 
whose untimely death we now deplore, without having 
become sensible of his fine character, his courage, and 
his rich intellectual endowments. His every physical 
feature bore abundant evidence of these possessions and 
gifts. It is equally true that no man could have spent 
much time in conversation with him without having real¬ 
ized that his information was extensive and that his 
attainments were broad and also unusually accurate. 
No lawyer could have discussed any legal question with 
him without consciously or unconsciously having become 
an admirer of his natural and acquired ability, his mental 
acumen, and his unsurpassed power of analysis. My 


[73] 


Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


association with him, the estimate of him by his brethren, 
and his success at the bar lead me to justly pay him, from 
the standpoint of a lawyer, the highest tribute—he was a 
great lawyer. 

The study and practice of the law perhaps gives to the 
man of ability and large experience a greater oppor¬ 
tunity for the development of the reasoning faculties and 
the power of concise, accurate, and logical, and, withal, 
comprehensive statement than that afforded by any 
other vocation. And this is so because the lawyer of 
ability and large affairs must constantly in his career 
meet learned antagonists who are acquainted with every 
weapon that may be employed in intellectual com¬ 
bat; and to succeed in any contest he must meet the 
thrusts, he must measure up to the skill of the experi¬ 
enced gladiator, and, finally, in any case, he must per¬ 
suade the court to believe in the correctness of his 
contention, or else instead of becoming the victor he will 
be the vanquished. The whole field of ratiocination is 
his, and in every conflict of opinion and argument he 
must employ learning, analysis, and logic. It may, there¬ 
fore, be said that the practice of the law is essentially 
intellectual warfare—offensive when assailing the posi¬ 
tion of a brother lawyer, defensive when maintaining 
the soundness of a proposition. It was true in Lord 
Coke’s day and is true now, that— 

Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is 
nothing else but reason. * * * The law, which is the per¬ 

fection of reason. 

The pulpit affords a great field for culture, for reason¬ 
ing, and for eloquence, but the battles fought by the pul¬ 
piteer generally are one-sided; that is to say, without the 
opposing force of any attending disputant. The scholar 
may comprehend within the range of his inental vision 


[74] 




Address of Mr. Clayton, of Alabama 


the contributions that human effort has given to the 
world, and yet he may never have enjoyed a real intel¬ 
lectual conflict. The scientist may make a startling dis¬ 
covery or give a wonderful demonstration of some nat¬ 
ural phenomenon and still not possess that development 
of the reasoning power which can come alone from fierce 
trial. The accomplished essayist may coin his thoughts 
into golden expression or may forcibly urge his conclu¬ 
sions. He may be accurate, he may be ready, but he has 
not experienced that larger growth which comes to the 
great debater when he fights his enemy face to face in the 
open forum. Trial and struggle make the mental as well 
as the physical athlete. This is the law of development. 

Doubtless the lawmaking power is the greatest func¬ 
tion of government. Law is the guiding and constraining 
force of organized society and must ever excite and de¬ 
mand the serious consideration of great and ambitious 
men and win to its advocacy those who love to exercise 
the reasoning faculties in behalf of right and justice 
amongst mankind. The profession which especially 
champions the cause of law must ever remain a necessary 
adjunct to the appeal to law, to the practical application 
of law, and the exemplification of the beneficence of law. 

In our own country, where we have a government of 
laws and not of men, it is essential that there be always 
men learned in the law, who can expound the law, main¬ 
tain its righteousness, secure its triumph in a contest, and 
achieve its vindication whenever it is violated. This high 
appreciation of the responsibility of the lawyer is evident 
everywhere in our jurisprudence and in the history of 
that jurisprudence. The law itself requires as a pre¬ 
requisite to the pursuit of that profession an oath pre¬ 
scribing the duties of the lawyer—such an oath as is 
exacted of no man in any other secular or nonofficial 
pursuit. 


[751 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


There is a characteristic liberality in the legal profes¬ 
sion that obtains in respect to no other profession, and 
this fact tends to broaden the intellectuality of its devo¬ 
tees. In the great calling of the ministry it is frequently 
the case that those dedicated to that great work are super¬ 
sensitive of criticism. They are sometimes bitter against 
their brethren who entertain diverse views on theological 
subjects. In the great profession of medicine it is said, 
perhaps truly but tritely, that many of the mistakes of 
that profession are buried without the knowledge of the 
living. 

But the lawyer can not escape the penalty that he must 
pay for ignorance, for lack of diligence, or of learning. 
More than the practitioner in any other profession, the 
lawyer is himself constantly undergoing trial. No man 
ever appeared before a judge or a jury in the capacity of 
a lawyer where he himself in some sort did not undergo 
trial. What are his attainments, what is his knowledge, 
what is his ability, what are his powers of persuasion? 
Has he laid down the law, has he argued the proposition 
well and truthfully? Has he persuaded the jury or the 
court as to the correctness of his contention? While he 
tries a case, inseparably in trying that case the court, or 
the jury, or the court and the jury, necessarily try the 
effort at least of the lawyer. 

The distinguished lawyer and statesman, the Hon. 

Chauncey M. Depew, of New York, has well observed 
that— 

While very proud of his profession, the lawyer is less sensitive 
to criticism than clergymen, doctors, or journalists. They resent 
attacks; he laughs at them. He stands sure, secure, and serene 
upon the firm foundations of laws which govern both States and 
individuals, which safeguard rights, redress wrongs, administer 
justice, and preserve civilization. 

Law is a jealous mistress, and yet great lawyers have found 
rest and recreation in literature. They have risen from the dry 


[76] 




Address of Mr. Clayton, of Alabama 


and exacting labors of the office or the court to give fancy and 
imagination an excursion into the realms of fiction and poetry. 
The accuracy of their training lends wonderful finish to essay, 
story, or verse, or sharper sting to satire. The best poetry upon 
law and lawyers, either of praise or blame, has been written by 
lawyers. 

Mr. Speaker, the legal profession sometimes divides 
lawyers into two general classes—the case lawyer and 
the lawyer who is more than a case lawyer, the lawyer 
who deals more essentially in the conduct of all legal 
controversies with the principles of the law, who values 
the principles of the great science more than he does mere 
precedents or kindred cases. I do not believe, Mr. 
Speaker, that there ever was a great case lawyer unless 
the lawyer was first thorough in his understanding of the 
principles of the law. This lawyer, Mr. Hughes, had 
mastered the learning in the hornbooks. He knew a legal 
proposition when stated to him, for he understood the 
law as a science, as the application of the principles of 
human reasoning and right to civilized government, in 
the administration of justice under the various questions 
of dispute that arise in our society. He was grounded in 
the profession of the law, and therefore it was easy for 
him to master cases; it was easy for him to excel as a 
lawyer. 

It may not be too much to say of him that he had more 
to do with making the mining and irrigation laws of our 
country than any other lawyer. This class of our juris¬ 
prudence is, in some respects, a modern development, 
peculiar to the American Continent. Mining law now is 
a vast branch of our law, and in the great western portion 
of our country perhaps not second in importance to any 
other branch; and coupled with it in importance in the 
arid States is another branch of newly developed law, our 
irrigation law. I do not mean to say, Mr. Speaker, that 


[77] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


Senator Hughes was very largely responsible directly for 
the mere statutory law relating to mining or to irrigation. 
But in construing statutory laws relating to mining and 
irrigation, and in having those statutes correctly inter¬ 
preted, so that they could be rightly administered, so that 
they could be remedied wherein defective, he has made 
rich contributions. 

From the beginning of his professional life in Colorado, 
while he was engaged in the general practice of the law, 
he gave especial attention to mining and irrigation law 
and became the leading expert at the bar on these two 
subjects in our jurisprudence. He was honored with an 
invitation to deliver, and did deliver, a remarkably in¬ 
structive and learned address on the evolution of mining 
law before the American Bar Association at Denver in 
1901. He delivered courses of lectures upon mining and 
irrigation law at the Harvard Law School. He was for 
many years a lecturer upon mining law in the University 
of Denver. 

So, Mr. Speaker, we are authorized to say from the 
estimates put upon him by his professional brethren, 
from his success at the bar, through the illuminating 
learning that he spread upon pages of court reports, 
from the fact that he achieved a fortune as a result of 
the practice of the law, from the fact that he was so long 
a distinguished lecturer upon legal topics, that it is not 
the language of exaggeration to declare he deserves to 
be ranked as a great lawyer. 

His political career was successful. In 1908 he was 
nominated for the position of United States Senator to 
succeed Mr. Teller, a distinguished and useful statesman, 
upon his voluntary retirement to private life, and was 
elected by the legislature the following January, having 
received the unanimous vote of the Democratic senators 
and representatives, numbering 73 out of a total mem- 


178] 




Address of Mr. Clayton, of Alabama 


bership of 100. In two preceding Democratic State con¬ 
ventions he had been tendered the nomination for gov¬ 
ernor of Colorado, but he declined. The pages of the 
Congressional Record are adorned for the time of his 
brief service here by his learning and his masterful skill 
as a debater. 

No man, Mr. Speaker, can perhaps overstate what 
would have been the greater usefulness and renown of 
Senator Hughes as a legislator had he been permitted to 
live. He came to that body, the Senate of the United 
States, well equipped as a lawyer, a ready and an experi¬ 
enced debater, and a fearless advocate of what he 
believed to be right. His career was ended in the midst 
of his prime. His State suffers from and mourns his 
loss. Those who served with him in Congress deeply re¬ 
gret his death. We may sum up his career, his life, by 
saying that he was always the upright citizen, the loyal 
Democrat, a lawyer of profound learning, of intellectual 
integrity, of ability unsurpassed. He was, moreover, an 
accomplished and wise statesman, a patriot, and a useful 
man in all his relations of life. He has gone to that 
reward that must come to all just men who have lived 
in the fear and love of God and in the high service of 
humanity. Of him we can say: 

No room was left for hope or fear, 

Of more or less; so high, so great 

His growth was, yet so safe his seat. 

Safe in the circle of his friends; 

Safe in his loyal heart and ends; 

Safe in his native, valiant spirit; 

By favor safe, and safe by merit. 


[79] 




Address of Mr. Clark, of Missouri 

Mr. Speaker: Missouri was settled principally by Vir¬ 
ginians, Kentuckians, North Carolinians, and Tennessee¬ 
ans, together with a sprinkling of the elite from every 
State in the Union and from every civilized country in the 
world. The Missourians, in turn, have been the chief 
factor in the settlement and building up of the States and 
Territories to the westward, even to the golden shores 
of the Pacific. 

The great influence of Missouri in the affairs of the 
newer States of the far West is evidenced by the fact that 
during the last two years the governor of Colorado, Hon. 
John F. Shafroth; one of her two United States Senators, 
Hon. Charles James Hughes, and two of her three Rep¬ 
resentatives in Congress, Hon. John A. Martin and Hon. 
A. W. Rucker, have been Missourians. In addition to 
them, Judge S. Harris White, of the Colorado supreme 
court, and Hon. Robert E. Lewis, of the United States dis¬ 
trict court of Colorado, are also Missourians. 

If Virginia is justly entitled to be called “ The Mother 
of Presidents,” Missouri is as justly entitled to the sobri¬ 
quet of “ The Mother of States and Statesmen.” 

Within the last few weeks two Missourians have died 
while holding seats in the Senate of the United States, 
though neither of them represented Missouri in that 
august body—Stephen Benton Elkins, of West Virginia, 
and Charles James Hughes, of Colorado. Consequently 
Missouri mourns with the Centennial State in the loss of 
her distinguished son. The Hugheses were among the 
pioneers in both Missouri and Colorado, and stood high 


180] 


Address of Mr. Clark, of Missouri 


in both those magnificent Commonwealths. They were 
and are capable, honest, industrious, thrifty, and patriotic 
men and women, discharging with ability, courage, and 
fidelity the onerous and important duties of American 
citizenship in every station in which they have found 
themselves in peace or in war. 

When elected to the Senate Mr. Hughes enjoyed a 
very high standing at the bar of Colorado, which from 
the beginning has been celebrated for the capacity, bril¬ 
liancy, learning, and eloquence of its members. His 
practice was exceedingly lucrative. Colorado presents 
as rich and varied a field for the lawyer as does any other 
State in the Union. While ranking high as a general 
practitioner, Senator Hughes became a specialist in min¬ 
ing and irrigation litigation. In these he laid the founda¬ 
tion of both fame and fortune. 

He was a Democrat and a vigorous partisan always. 
During his whole life he took an interest in politics as 
every citizen owes it to his country to do. He was a 
candidate for presidential elector in 1888, 1900, and 1904, 
being elected in 1900 and defeated in 1888 and 1904. He 
was a delegate to the Democratic national conventions 
of 1904 and 1908. In 1904 and 1906 he was tendered the 
Democratic nomination for governor, which he declined. 
He was unanimously nominated by the Democrats of 
Colorado in convention assembled in 1908 as the suc¬ 
cessor to the venerable Henry M. Teller in the Senate of 
the United States, to which body he was duly elected by 
the legislature in January, 1909, receiving every Demo¬ 
cratic vote, and was sworn in as a Member of the House 
of the conscript fathers March 4, 1909. A consideration 
of the nominations which he accepted and those which 
he declined leads one not very familiar with his mental 
processes to conclude that he really had little desire for 
public office, and was a candidate sometimes from a 


93226°—11-6 


[81] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


sense of duty or party fealty when he knew the chances 
were against his election. 

When elected to the Senate he relinquished a law prac¬ 
tice worth many times the salary of a Senator, which 
more than anything else perhaps demonstrates his patri¬ 
otic purpose. It is a commendable act, somewhat too 
rare in this country, when a man successful at the bar 
or in some other wholesome field of human endeavor, 
having amassed a competency, is willing to give over 
money-making in order to serve his country, which is 
worthy of the best service of all her sons, from the poor¬ 
est to the richest, from the lowest to the highest. 

Senator Hughes paid little attention to the rule, now 
honored more in the breach than in the observance, that 
new Senators, like children, should be seen and not 
heard. He chose the better part, the more sensible part, 
and dipped into the debates whenever he thought proper; 
and it is simple truth to say that he held his own with the 
best of his fellows. No one seemed to deem his early 
participation in debate as improper, for he brought with 
him to the Capitol the reputation of being one of the 
ripest lawyers and most successful advocates in the trans- 
Mississippi region. So from the very first he held a com¬ 
manding position in the Senate and had the ear of the 
country. 

Upon his entrance into the Senate he was 56 years of 
age, right in the prime of his powers and apparently 
destined for a long and splendid career. The high hopes 
of himself and his friends were blasted by his early and 
untimely death, which is a real loss to his State and to 
the country. The unusual success which he achieved in 
his two years of service in the Senate will forever remain 
as proof of what he might have accomplished had his 
senatorial career been prolonged through many years. 


[82] 




Address of Mr. Alexander, of Missouri 


Mr. Speaker : As is well known the late Senator 
Charles J. Hughes, Jr., junior Senator from the State 
of Colorado, was born in Missouri. The county in which 
he was born and the county in which he was raised are 
both in my congressional district, and for many years 
as judge of the seventh judicial circuit of Missouri I held 
court in Kingston, the county seat of Caldwell County, 
where he was born, and in Richmond, the county seat of 
Ray County, where he grew to manhood and lived until 
he went to the city of Denver, in Colorado, where he 
resided up to the time of his death. My acquaintance 
with Senator Hughes was not very intimate. I never 
met him more than once or twice prior to his removal 
to Denver, and it was on those occasions in Richmond, 
Mo. The fact that he was raised in the fine old town 
of Richmond, and that my wife was born there, and 
he and my wife were of kin, and that their parents 
and kindred were among the old residents in Rich¬ 
mond and Ray Counties, drew me to him *and caused 
me to watch his career with more than ordinary inter¬ 
est. I feel that I would fail in a duty to the splendid 
constituency I have the honor to represent in this dis¬ 
tinguished body if I did not say a word by way of 
tribute to the memory of one of their most distinguished 
sons. 

Charles J. Hughes, Jr., was born in Kingston, Mo., on 
the 16th day of February, 1853. He was the son of the 
late Judge Charles J. Hughes, who was for many years 
judge of the probate and county courts of Ray County. 


r83] 


Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


His mother, Mrs. Serena Hughes, is still living, and her 
home is in Richmond, Mo. Senator Hughes's father, 
with his family, removed from Kingston to Richmond in 
1863. He graduated from Richmond College in 1872, and 
from the law department of the Missouri State University 
in 1873, and was enrolled as an attorney and counselor 
at law in the circuit court of Ray County September 6, 
1873, Hon. Philander Lucas being judge of the court; 
James L. Farris, prosecuting attorney; John C. Rrown, 
sheriff; and John H. Harmony, clerk. James W. Ganner, 
now a prominent lawyer in Kansas City, and James Lane 
Allen, the author, were college friends of Senator 
Hughes. 

The Richmond bar at that time was composed of many 
lawyers of great learning and ability in their profession. 
Gen. A. W. Donophan, Missouri’s hero of the Mexican 
War, and a distinguished soldier, lawyer, and statesman; 
Judge George W. Dunn, for a great many years circuit 
judge, and greatly beloved by the people; C. T. Garner, 
sr., for a generation one of the leaders, if not the leader, 
of the Richmond bar; James L. Farris, sr., a member of 
the constitutional convention of 1875, and a member of 
the General Assembly of Missouri for several terms, and 
regarded as one of the ablest lawyers and most brilliant 
advocates at the bar in Missouri; John W. Sliotwell, 
David P. Witmer, William A. Donaldson, Joseph E. 
Black, sr., and James W. Black, sr., both of whom 
were men of great legal learning; Nathaniel Bannister, 
Elijah G. Esteb, Andrew J. Riffe, Charles J. Hughes, sr., 
father of Senator Hughes, and James W. Ganner, now 
and for many years past one of the prominent lawyers 
of Kansas City, Mo., were all members of the Richmond 
bar, and most of them in the actual practice of their 
profession, and the outlook for a young and aspiring 
iawyer in a community where the older members of the 


[84] 




Address of Mr. Alexander, of Missouri 


profession were so firmly entrenched in the confidence 
and esteem of the people was not at all inviting. 

Senator Hughes married Miss Lucy L. Menefee, one of 
Richmond’s fairest daughters, September 1, 1874, and his 
wife and four children survive him. 

Through Thomas N. Lovelock and James L. Farris, jr., 
both now and for many years leading members of the 
Richmond bar, as well as the Conservator and Missourian, 
published in that city, I have gathered a few of the facts 
relating to the life of Senator Hughes while he was a 
resident of Richmond. 

Mr. Farris says of him: 

My first recollection of Senator Hughes dates from about 1875. 
He was then professor of mathematics and science in the public 
schools of Richmond, where he had been a teacher for some time 
and where he continued to teach until 1878. The last two years 
he taught here I recited some lessons to him. He was earnest 
and zealous in his work; he had charge of our debating society 
and was tireless in our behalf. 

In June, 1878, part of Ray County was swept by a ter¬ 
rible cyclone. It plowed its way through the town of 
Richmond, destroying much property. Several people 
were killed and many injured. Mr. Farris says: 

.4 

On that day Mr. Hughes, his wife, and their children were on 
their way to Camden, 6 miles distant from Richmond, and were 
overtaken by the cyclone, the most terrible that ever passed over 
the county. 

He suffered a broken leg. I arrived on the scene a few minutes 
after the storm passed and was struck by his manly bearing and 
stoic attitude. He and his company were spattered with mud, 
his leg broken and the bone exposed; the vehicle torn to pieces 
and scattered about, one of the mules killed, the other badly crip¬ 
pled. Almost miraculously his family had escaped injury. He 
was suffering intensely. A party rode up hurriedly and handed 
him a bottle of whisky with request for him to drink to deaden 
the pain, but he quietly remarked “ Throw it away.” 


[85] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


While he was on crutches he made the race for prose¬ 
cuting attorney for Ray County against James W. Garner 
and was beaten by a few votes. 

Soon afterwards Senator Hughes moved to Denver and 
formed a partnership with Gen. Bela Hughes. In Rich¬ 
mond his life was pure and marked by indefatigable 
energy. 

He loved books and was a great student. As a teacher, 
Mr. Farris says of him: 

At school he was as exacting of his relative’s children and the 
children of the directors as of the humblest. He knew nor 
showed any favoritism. 

His exactions, however, were neither captious nor foolish, but 
inspired by an exalted purpose to get the best out of his pupils 
that was in them. His reputation as a school-teacher in our 
community was that of an “Abelard,” whose name, I believe, 
stands for all scholastic graces. 

Senator Hughes did not practice law in Richmond long, 
and his practice was limited, but through the period in¬ 
tervening between his admission to the bar in 1873 and 
his removal to Denver in 1879 he was laying the founda¬ 
tion broad and deep for that splendid success at the bar 
which then began and steadily increased throughout his 
career at the Denver bar. 

His career since going to Colorado will be eloquently 
portrayed by his distinguished colleagues from that State 
in this body and in the Senate, while his brief but bril¬ 
liant career in the Senate of the United States will no 
doubt receive that meed of high praise which it merits 
from his colleagues in that body. 

It is with the deepest satisfaction and pride that Senator 
Hughes's relatives and friends in Missouri noted such 
encomiums on the life and character of Senator Hughes 
as were pronounced by distinguished citizens of Denver 


[86] 




Address of Mr. Alexander, of Missouri 


and published in the Denver press on the morning fol¬ 
lowing his death. 

Gov. Shafroth, a former Missourian, paid him the fol¬ 
lowing eloquent tribute: 

He was one of the strongest men mentally we have ever had in 
Colorado. He was especially well equipped for legislative work 
in the United States Senate because of the long training he had 
had in the study of laws and their interpretation. 

Senator Hughes was, in my judgment, the strongest lawyer in 
the State of Colorado. I had watched him try cases and had 
found in him a persistence in forcing his points and in clearly 
arguing the same that indicated great depth of learning and a 
knowledge of elementary principles so valuable to a lawyer in 
the trial of cases. 

None ever has even suggested that Senator Hughes was not the 
soul of honor in the trial of cases and in all his relations in life. 
Had he lived he would have been one of the strongest and ablest 
Senators in the United States Senate. 

Former Gov. Alva Adams said of him: 

It is a calamity to the State of Colorado. Senator Hughes was 
one of the greatest lawyers the State has ever produced, and he 
was a statesman of the highest rank. His death is an occasion 
for public mourning. Senator Hughes was a highly educated, 
polished statesman, who was a credit to the great Commonwealth 
which he represented in the United States Senate. 

Senator W. H. Adams, president pro tempore of the 
State senate, said: 

The death of Senator Hughes is a serious loss to Democracy in 
this State and a great blow to every citizen of Colorado. He was 
one of the ablest of a long line of distinguished men who have 
represented Colorado in the upper hall, of Congress. Senator 
Hughes was a man of brains. He was capable wherever placed. 
As a lawyer he had no superior in Colorado and as a statesman 
showed his ability during his brief career in Washington. He 
was a tireless worker and a man deeply interested in the welfare 
of this State. His death marks the passing of a truly great man. 


[87] 




Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


George McLachlan, speaker of the house of representa¬ 
tives, said: 

Senator Hughes was a man of whom this State justly was 
proud. Colorado has sent many able men to the United States 
Senate, but none abler than he. He was a lawyer of the greatest 
ability. Colorado will mourn him, and his name will be written 
on the pages of the history of the State’s development. 

Cassius F. Clay, chairman of the Republican county 
central committee, said: 

I knew Senator Hughes very well. His death is an immense 
loss. His remarkable ability and personality was destined to 
make him one of the most prominent political figures in the 
Democratic Party. He was a hard worker, aggressive, and 
wrapped up in his profession. He never aspired to any polit¬ 
ical office until the Senatorship arose. He already had a name 
for himself by his able work in the Senate. 

Chief Justice John Campbell, of the supreme court of 
Colorado, was informed of the death of Senator Hughes 
a few minutes before he left the statehouse for his home. 
He was a close personal friend of the Senator, and the 
news of his death was a distinct shock. He said: 

I knew, as did everybody else, that the Senator was very low, 
but I did not dream that his condition was so critical. I can not 
adequately express the grief that I feel. The loss of Senator 
Hughes to Colorado, as well as the Nation, will be keenly felt. 
Senator Hughes was one of the ablest lawyers that I ever have 
known. He was a man who, had he lived, would have been a 
leader in the Senate. His death will be felt nation-wide. 

Dr. F. L. Bartlett, president of the chamber of com¬ 
merce, said: 

We have called a meeting of the board of directors for 
4 o’clock to-morrow afternoon to take formal action on the death 
of Senator Hughes. We all feel badly over his death. He was 
a good man and one of ability. He always had the best inter¬ 
ests of Colorado at heart. It will be difficult to find anyone who 
was as loyal to the best interests of the State. 


[88] 




Address of Mr. Alexander, of Missouri 


Thomas Keeley, vice president of the First National 
Bank, said: 

We are all deeply grieved to hear of Senator Hughes’s death. 
We had hoped that rest and absence from cares might restore 
him to health and strength. Mr. Hughes was one of the finest 
men I ever knew. He was a man of great will and brain power 
and one who always gave his individual attention to anything 
intrusted to his legal advice. He always had a pleasant word 
for everyone and it was a pleasure to visit his office. Intellec¬ 
tually, I think he was one of the biggest men we ever had in 
this community. He could see through a case clearer and 
quicker than most business men and always exercised good 
judgment. We have always been very close to him, and mourn 
his loss more than any other institution or individuals in the 
city, excepting his own family. I consider his death a great 
blow to the growth and future development of the city. It will 
be a long time before we can get another to take his place. 

United States District Attorney Thomas Ward, jr., said: 

I had known Senator Hughes since 1883. His family and mine 
were Missourians and acquainted long before coming to Colo¬ 
rado. I regarded him as the best lawyer in the State. He was 
a great lawyer in every respect, the ideal citizen, just and lovable, 
and his loss to Colorado is incalculable. 

I firmly believe that he was destined to shine as one of the 
Nation’s foremost statesmen, and had he lived there is no limit 
to his achievements along the lines of constitutional statesman¬ 
ship. His loss is more than local—it is national. 

Mayor Speer, of Denver, said of him: 

The death of Senator Hughes is a serious loss not only to 
Colorado but to the Nation. He was possessed of a remarkable 
mind and of the loftiest integrity. He had just entered upon a 
career in the United States Senate during which, even the brief 
time he had served, he had won the admiration and respect of 
the Nation and had aroused the greatest pride of his constituency. 
The Nation has lost a Senator in Congress and our State a citizen 
whose place can not be filled. 


[89] 





Memorial Addresses: Senator Hughes 


Many more testimonials from men in all the walks of 
life, from the President of the United States to the hum¬ 
blest citizen, might be added to these showing the high 
esteem in which Senator Hughes was held by his fellow 
countrymen. Other men gifted and capable, and who 
have had the better opportunity to form a just estimate of 
his talents and ability, will no doubt do full justice to his 
memory. 

It is a matter of profound regret that he should be cut 
down at the time when just entering on a career of the 
largest usefulness to his State and to the Nation. But his 
untimely death is only another of the inscrutable trage¬ 
dies of this life. 

Though dead, yet we believe he has entered upon a 
higher life, that those noble qualities of mind and heart 
wrought out by long years of labor and pain and struggle 
here have fitted him for the companionship of that illus¬ 
trious company whose pure lives and great achievements 
have adorned the pages of history. 

Said Victor Hugo, in answer to the question, “ Shall we 
live again? ” 

I feel in myself the future life. I am a forest once cut down; 
the new shoots are stronger and livelier than ever. I am rising, 
I know, toward the sky. The sunshine is on my head. The 
earth gives me its generous sap, but heaven lights me with 
unknown worlds. 

You say the soul is nothing but the resultant of bodily powers. 
Why, then, is my soul more luminous when my bodily powers 
begin to fail? 

Winter is on my head but eternal spring is in my heart. I 
breathe at this hour the fragrance of the lilacs, the violets, and 
roses as at 20 years. The nearer I approach the end the plainer 
I hear around me the immortal symphonies of the worlds which 
invite me. It is marvelous yet simple. It is a fairy tale and it 
is history. 

For half a century I have been writing my thoughts in prose 
and in verse; history, philosophy, drama, romance, tradition, 


[90] 




Address of Mr. Alexander, of Missouri 


satire, ode, and song; I have tried all. But I feel that I have not 
said the thousandth part of what is in me. When I go down to 
the grave I can say, like many others, “ I have finished my day’s 
work.” But I can not say I have finished my life. My day’s 
work will begin again the next morning. The tomb is not a 
blind alley, it is a thoroughfare. It closes on the twilight, it 
opens on the dawn. 

May we not cherish the hope that Charles J. Hughes, 
Jr., having fully met and discharged the duties and 
obligations of this life, whether as son, husband, parent, 
friend, citizen, patriot, or statesman, only finished his 
day’s work here on Wednesday, January 11, 1911, and 
that his day’s work began again the next morning in 
another world, freed from the limitations and disap¬ 
pointments and sorrows of this life. 


[91] 




Address of Mr. Smith, of Iowa 

Mr. Speaker: It is not for me to go into the history of 
Senator Hughes and his public service; neither shall I 
enter into any detailed analysis of his talents or charac¬ 
teristics. These subjects are properly left to the Repre¬ 
sentatives of those States, one of which was honored by 
giving him birth and the other of which was honored by 
granting him his commission to the Senate. I shall con¬ 
tent myself with a few words in reference to him as a 
lawyer as I saw him and as my personal friend. 

I first met him about 10 years ago, when we were 
arrayed in a professional capacity on opposite sides in 
the courtroom. We sat on opposite sides of the trial 
table in the aggregate for about six months during a 
period of about nine years. I saw him in action and 
learned how great a lawyer he was. Always courteous,* 
but incisive, almost matchless in clearness of perception 
and powers of analysis, with tremendous industry and 
wonderful memory, I have never met another so formi¬ 
dable adversary. His mind seemed to photograph every 
word of the evidence in a long trial, and woe betide that 
witness who in the course of years varied his testimony 
by a hair’s breadth! He was a masterly cross-examiner 
and, as all such must be, a great judge of human nature. 

The great West is proud of many of its lawyers and 
deems them fit to contend with the best lawyers of the 
older and more cultured East; and this man had no supe¬ 
rior in his profession and few, if any, equals in all the 
lands beyond the Mississippi. 

Reference has been made this afternoon to the fact that 
by his profession he had acquired wealth, and it seems 


[92] 


Address of Mr. Smith, of Iowa 


to me proper to suggest at this time that the fact that a 
candidate for public office is possessed of wealth is no 
objection to his selection provided he would be selected 
if he were not wealthy. 

The only criticism that is just is when, as in many in¬ 
stances, a man of wealth is chosen to a great public office 
who would not be considered for that office if it were not 
for his wealth. 

Senator Hughes was too industrious. I sometimes 
think that the human family is made up almost wholly of 
those who work too much and of those who refuse to 
work enough. Almost none are wise enough to work as 
they should. Senator Hughes undoubtedly worked too 
much and thereby brought on his untimely death. 

He was affable, genial, generous, dignified, and self- 
contained. He was a good and loyal friend. During all 
the past 10 years he was my friend, and it was with deep 
regret I heard of his serious illness and with sincere sor¬ 
row that I learned of his untimely death. 

The Speaker pro tempore. In accordance with the reso¬ 
lutions adopted, and as a further mark of respect to the 
deceased Senator and Representative, the House stands 
adjourned until to-morrow. 

Accordingly (at 3 o’clock and 50 minutes p. m.) the 
House adjourned until to-morrow, Monday, February 13, 
at 12 o’clock noon. 




[93] 































































































































































































































































































































































































